Ann Lathrop, Kathleen Foss - Guiding Students From Cheating and Plagiarism To Honesty and Integrity - Strategies For Change (2005)

Guiding Students from
Cheating and Plagiarism to

Honesty and Integrity
This page intentionally left blank
Guiding Students from
Cheating and Plagiarism to
Honesty and Integrity
Strategies for Change
Ann Lathrop and Kathleen Foss
2005
LIBRARIES
NU N L I M I T E D
A Member of the Greenwood Publishing Group
Westport, Connecticut • London

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lathrop, Ann.
Guiding students from cheating and plagiarism to honesty and integrity :
strategies for change / Ann Lathrop and Kathleen Foss.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-59158-275-X (alk. paper)
1. Cheating (Education) 2. Students—Conduct of life. I. Foss, Kathleen.
II. Title.
LB3609.L27 2005
371.5'8-dc22 2005018010
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available.
Copyright © 2005 by Ann Lathrop and Kathleen Foss
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be
reproduced, by any process or technique, without the
express written consent of the publisher.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2005018010
ISBN: 1-59158-275-X
First published in 2005
Libraries Unlimited, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881
A Member of the Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
www.lu.com
Printed in the United States of America
The paper used in this book complies with the

Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National
Information Standards Organization (Z39.48-1984).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3
Dedication
Now, more than ever,
This book is dedicated to honest students.

Their integrity and hard work need to be recognized, supported,
and protected by parents, teachers, administrators, and all
concerned members of society.
This new book is dedicated also to the growing numbers of

parents and educators whose ejforts are building a culture that
supports honest students in our schools and homes. They will
help our honest students to remain so.
Contents
Preface by David Callahan xv
Introduction xvii
Part I: Focus on Honesty and Integrity
Chapter 1 Creating a School Culture of Honesty

and Integrity 3
Thomas G. Lay ton: "The Digital Child" 1
Chapter 2 Student Voices 13
Jason M. Stephens: "Justice or Just Us? What to
Do About Cheating " 32
Chapter 3 Responding to the Students 35
Bill Taylor: "Academic Integrity: A Letter to
My Students" 40
Karen Farley: "Skills for Life in the Davenport
Community Schools " 42
Chapter 4 Parents' Role in Developing Student Honesty
and Integrity 49
Elaine K. McEwan: " 'I Didn't Do It'—
Dealing with Dishonesty" 53
Father Val J. Peter: "Nobody Likes a Cheat" 55
Michael Josephson: "Helping Our Children Learn
to Make Good Choices " 57
Carolyn Jabs: "Preventing Plagiarism" 60
viii Contents
Elaine K. McEwan: " 'The Dog Ate It' —

Conquering Homework Hassles " 62
Part II: Leadership in Action
Chapter 5 Effective Leaders Create Effective Policies 67

Joseph Borson, Jennifer Gordon:
"Marple Newtown's Student Committee for
Academic Integrity" 70
Bill Hayes: "The Student Honor Council at
St. Andrew's Upper School" 75
John J. Brady: "Cheating—A National Issue
Hits Home" 80
Shulamit Finkelstein: "'Democracy in Action' in the
Washington County Public Schools" 86
Carrie-Ann Ortiz: "CHARACTER COUNTS!
at Lennox Middle School" 90
Michael Josephson: "CHARACTER COUNTS!" and
"The Six Pillars of Character " 95
Chapter 6 Academic Integrity Policy or Honor Code?
Dealing with the "Student Ratting" Issue 99
llRoberta Ann Johnson: "What Could Make You Decide
to Be a Whistleblower?" 1
103
Gary Zing her: "Carrying Secrets" 106
Robert Harris: "An Administrative Check List" 110
Diane Downey: "Students Respond to
New Honor Code " 114
Chapter 7 Librarians As a Force for Integrity 119
Carol H. Rohrbach and Joyce Kasman Valenza:
"Changing School Culture at Springfield Township
High School: A Research Integrity Policy That Works" 122
Barbara Jansen: "Support for Student Research and
Writing at the St. Andrew's School Library Web Site " 135
Margaret Lincoln: "A Proactive Response
to Plagiarism" 137
Gretchen Pearson: "What's a Teacher or Librarian
to Do?" 141
Chapter 8 Pursuing Victory With Honor 147
Michael Josephson: "Victory With Honor" 149
Contents ix
Robert Weinberg: "Pursuing Victory With Honor at

Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies " 151
Chuck Schmidt: "Pursuing Victory With Honor in
Arizona Schools " 154
Will Kreamer: "CATS WIN at Sabino High School" 156
Scott Brown: " Where Attention Goes—Energy Flows " 158
Part III: Integrity in the Writing Process
Chapter 9 Moving from Plagiarism to Integrity in

the Writing Process 163
Gary M. Galles: "Simple Strategies for
Combating Plagiarism " 167
Greg Van Belle: "How Cheating Helps Drive
Better Instruction " 169
Tom Rocklin: "Plagiarism, Trust, and Fraud" 1172
Rebecca Moore Howard: "Plagiarism: What Should
a Teacher Do ? " 1174
Alexandra Babione: "Plagiarism: How to Avoid It" 175
Robert Harris: "When There's a Question of Plagiarism..." 1 Ill
Carol Simpson: "Copyright and Plagiarism
Guidelines for Students" and "The Importance of
a Copyright Policy " 191
Chapter 10 Lessons to Support Integrity in the
Writing Process 195
Marcia Jensen: "Research in the Primary Grades: Spiders" 197
Beverly Schottler and Martha Biggs: "Fourth Grade
Researchers" 198
Murray Suid: "How to Take Copying Out of
Report Writing" 200
Kathy Foss: "Assigning a Multigenre
Research Project" 203
Christine Perkins and Laurie Guy: "Identifying a
Unifying Theme as a Final Exam in Literature " 206
Part IV: Using Technology with Integrity
Chapter 11 Honesty in Online Education 215

Virgil Varvel: "Integrity in Online Education" 218
x Contents
Chapter 12 Keeping Technology Honest 225

Jacquie Henry: "Keeping Technology Honest" 225
Part V: Appendices
Appendix A National Surveys on Student

Cheating and Plagiarism 235
Josephson Institute of Ethics: "Report Card 2004:
The Ethics of American Youth " 236
Donald McCabe: "Cheating: Why Students Do It
and How We Can Help Them Stop " 237
Appendix B Survey Forms 243
Appendix C Annotated Table of Contents for Student
Cheating and Plagiarism in the Internet Era:
A Wake-up Call (Libraries Unlimited, 2000) 247
Author-Title Index 253
Subject Index 257

COPY ME Pages
Chapter 1 Michael Josephson: "Cheating Isn't the Problem" 10

Books and ERIC Documents: Ethical Issues,
Student Cheating 11
Chapter 2 Student Voices 16
Student Comments I Discussion 18
Chapter 3 Bill Taylor: "Academic Integrity: A Letter to
My Students" 40
Karen Farley: "Skills for Life in the Davenport
Community Schools " 42
High School Students' Responses to a
"3-Minute Survey" 44
Focus on Academic Honesty and Integrity 45
Simple Suggestions to Help Reduce Cheating 46
Whose Work Is Being Graded? 47
Help Students to Value Homework and Complete It Honestly 48
Chapter 4 Elaine K. McEwan: " T Didn 't Do It'—
Dealing with Dishonesty" 53
Father Val J. Peter: "Nobody Likes a Cheat" 55
Michael Josephson: "Helping Our Children Learn to
Make Good Choices " 57
Carolyn Jabs: "Preventing Plagiarism" 60
Elaine K. McEwan: " 'The Dog Ate It'—Conquering
Homework Hassles " 62
xii COPYME Pages
Chapter 5 Michael Josephson: "CHARACTER COUNTS!" and

"The Six Pillars of Character" 95
Chapter 6 Roberta Ann Johnson: "What Could Make You Decide
to Be a Whistleblower? " 103
Discussion Questions: Student Whistleblowers 105
Gary Zingher: "Snitching" 109
Robert Harris: "An Administrative Check List" 110
Keep the Academic Integrity Policy
"Front and Center " 112
Diane Downey: "Students Respond to New
Honor Code" 114
Academic Integrity Policies I Honor Codes Online 116
Chapter 7 Carol H. Rohrbach: "Take the 'Clean Hands' Test" 131
Joyce Kasman Valenza: "The Virtual Library at Springfield
Township High School" 133
Barbara Jansen: "Support for Student Research and
Writing at the St. Andrew's School Library Web Site 135
Margaret Lincoln: "The Lakeview High School
Library Web Site 140
Chapter 8 Michael Josephson: "Victory With Honor" 149
Chuck Schmidt: "Pursuing Victory With Honor in
Arizona Schools " 154
Pursuing Victory With Honor—Arizona
Interscholastic Association 155
Michael Josephson: "What I Want My Daughter to
Get Out of Sports " 160
Chapter 9 Tom Rocklin: "Plagiarism, Trust, and Fraud 172
Rebecca Moore Howard: "Plagiarism: What Should
a Teacher Do ? " 1174
Alexandra Babione: "Plagiarism: How to Avoid It" 175
Robert Harris: "When There's a Question of
Plagiarism..." 1Ill
How to Protect Yourself from an Accusation of
Plagiarism 180
Research Portfolio Cover Sheet 181
Library Research Checklist 182
24/7 Online Library Services 183
COPYME Pages xiii
A "Research Night Out" for Parents 184

School Library Web Sites That Support Integrity in
Student Writing 185
Plagiarism Web Sites for Educators 186
Identifying a Plagiarized Paper—Not As Simple
As It Sounds 187
Online Sites for Reports and Research Papers 188
Carol Simpson: "Copyright and Plagiarism Guidelines
for Students" and "The Importance of a Copyright Policy" 191
Sources for Information on Copyright Policy 193
ISTE National Educational Technology Standards
(NETS) Project 194
Chapter 10 Marcia Jensen: "Research in the Primary Grades: Spiders" 197
Beverly Schottler and Martha Biggs: "Fourth Grade
Researchers" 198
Murray Suid: "How to Take Copying Out
of Report Writing" 200
Kathy Foss: "Assigning a Multigenre Research Project" 203
Christine Perkins and Laurie Guy: "Identifying a
Unifying Theme as a Final Exam in Literature " 206
Cite It? Don't Have to Cite It? 208
Practice for Note Cards, Paraphrasing, Quoting,
and Summarizing 209
Cut-and-Paste Research 210
Teaching About Plagiarism: Resources 211
Chapter 11 Distance Education Courses for Public Elementary
and Secondary School Students: 2002-03 217
Virgil Varvel: Online Learning—
Technical Information 224
Appendix A Josephson Institute of Ethics: Report Card 2004:
The Ethics of American Youth 236
Preface
David Callahan
Nobody goes into teaching to be a cop. And for many teachers, at high schools and
universities alike, cheating by students stands as the most odious fact of profes-
sional life. Who wants to police and discipline the very students you are supposed
to inspire? Who wants the confrontations, the denials, the tears and—too often—
the administrative battles? Nobody, which is one reason why research shows that
a great many teachers are often aware of cheating and yet take no action.
But like it not, enforcing standards of academic integrity is a central respon-
sibility of teachers. This is especially true now, when surveys show pervasive
cheating at both the high school and university level. The good news is that we
now have more insights than ever before about ways to foster an environment of
academic integrity. This excellent book shares some of the best thinking available
and will stand as a major contribution to the field.
Faculty who confront cheating are not alone. They now can find help and sup-
port in a growing network of researchers and activists. Nothing less than a national
movement is under way to advance the principle of honesty in academic life.
Yet even as we cheer all the strides that have been made—the new studies with
new insights, the new policies and procedures, the new engagement by adminis-
trators, faculty, students, and parents—we have to be crystal clear about just what
we are up against. The problems of academic dishonesty are symptoms of larger
problems in American society. Many sectors of our society—sports, business,
law, medicine, accounting—face a crisis of ethics, a crisis rooted in changes over
the past few decades in our economy, culture, government, and personal values.
To make a long story short, America has become a far more cut-throat society in
recent decades. We are a society that bestows ever larger rewards on the winners,
whatever field they may be in, while leaving ordinary people feeling more insecure
about their economic prospects. We are a society that has grown more materialistic,
xvi Preface
where a greater number of people judge their self-worth by their net worth, and
where our cultural icons are people like Donald Trump and Paris Hilton. Mean-
while, inequities in our democracy and the criminal justice system enable those with
more money and power to bend society's rules to suit their own interests and to go
unpunished when they break the rules.
All of this is a formula for anxiety and cynicism. A great many Americans—
young and old alike—worry about being left behind, or have lost sight of any
other aspiration beyond winning the money chase. And a great many Americans
understand that the rules of life aren't fair these days and that honesty is not neces-
sarily the best policy.
What happens when people don't believe that the rules are fair? They make up
their own rules. Better that than to be the honest chump in a culture of cheating.
Surveys of young people show that this understanding informs student cheating.
Many students believe they need to cheat to succeed in life, because that is the
way the world works. Even students determined to be honest may feel they must
cheat to be competitive with cheaters.
Honor codes and other strategies for academic integrity are a vital part of any
solution to the cheating culture. At the very least, faculty and administrators must
create a climate where honest students don't feel they are at a disadvantage. Just
as cheating can become normalized at a school, so too can academic integrity ef-
forts move the pendulum in the other direction and create a climate where cheat-
ing is not cool. Youth culture, as we know, can so often turn on a dime.
But the challenge for institutions of learning is much larger: These institutions
must help reverse the broader societal forces that create so much anxiety and
cynicism. This can include any number of things, such as encouraging students to
engage in civic life and become active stakeholders in our democracy, or requir-
ing community service from students so they learn to think of others and not just
themselves.
Perhaps of most importance, schools must reaffirm the humanist ideal of learn-
ing as an end in and of itself and as a means of becoming a whole person. If
education is nothing more than a market activity—part of a large trend toward the
commodification of everything—then widespread cheating is inevitable. School
is just another hoop to jump through on the path to making money. But if educa-
tion is something deeper and more meaningful, then cheating makes no sense.
You are just hurting yourself.
Dismantling the culture of cheating won't happen overnight. But books like
this one will help us to achieve this goal sooner rather than later.
[David Callahan is the author of The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are D
Wrong to Get Ahead (Harcourt, 2004) online at www.cheatingculture.com and is Director
of Research for Demos (220 Fifth Ave. FL5, New York, NY 10001). His e-mail address is
dcallahan@demos.org.]
Introduction
We need to create a new social contract in America that gives people faith
in a few simple principles: Anyone who plays by the rules can get ahead.
Everyone has some say in how the rules get made. Everyone who breaks the
rules suffers the same penalties. And all of us are in the same boat, living in
the same "moral community" and striving together to build a society that
confers respect on people based on a wide variety of accomplishments If
the next generations of Americans are to help build a more ethical society
and sustain it, they must come of age within institutions that are far less
tolerant of cheating than today's high schools and universities. They also
must learn early on to commit themselves to principles beyond their own
individual self-interest. (Callahan 263, 286)
We believe, with David Callahan, that we must create "institutions that are
far less tolerant of cheating than today's high schools and universities." We have
developed this book as a practical guide to successful policies, programs, and
resources that can help students move toward honesty and integrity.
This new book is a companion to our earlier book, Student Cheating and Pla-
giarism in the Internet Era: A Wake-Up Call, an in-depth examination of electronic
and traditional cheating and plagiarism. It is not a revision; with the exception of
one COPY ME page, all of the material is new.
Students' voices speak to us throughout the book. They tell us why they cheat
and why they don't. In response, we offer first-person accounts written by edu-
cators, parents, and students who have approached the problem of cheating and
plagiarism in a variety of effective ways.
xviii Introduction
COPY ME pages to help you move students toward honesty and

integrity
Almost every chapter has one or more COPY ME pages. Many of these are
short articles written by experts in the field. There are lists of resources on specific
topics, selected carefully from the many available in print and online. Other pages
share practical suggestions from our own experiences or compilations of sugges-
tions from brainstorming sessions with students and teachers.
Any page with COPY ME at the top may be reproduced for class instruction,
discussion groups, workshop or conference handouts, newsletter articles, or other
educational uses. Permission is granted to make print copies of these pages, but
they may not be put on a Web site or distributed in any digital format. The content
of the COPY ME page must not be changed and the following credit statement
must be included whenever the page is reproduced:
Reprinted with permission of the authors: Guiding Students from Cheating and Plagia-
rism to Honesty and Integrity: Strategies for Change, by Ann Lathrop and Kathleen Foss
(Libraries Unlimited, 2005). Permission is granted to make print copies for class instruc-
tion, discussion groups, workshops, conferences, or newsletters. This material must not be
placed on a Web site or distributed in any digital format. This statement must appear in its
entirety on each print copy.
Some of the guest articles are clearly marked as COPY ME pages; the oth-
ers may not be copied without written permission from the original author and
publisher.
What you won't find

We do not address plagiarism of computer code, cheating on the SAT and other
standardized tests administered nationally, or dishonesty by administrators and
teachers who allow cheating on standardized tests or report false test data to im-
prove the ratings of their school or district. Three books that cover these issues
effectively, and that we recommend highly, are:
• The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get
Ahead, by David Callahan (Harcourt, 2004), is a comprehensive review
of cheating in all areas of American life. See related material and updates
at www.cheatingculture.com.
• Cheating on Tests: How to Do It, Detect It, and Prevent It, by Gregory
Cizek (Lawrence Erlbaum, 1999), provides specific information about
teachers and principals who cheat, examines legal issues, describes
methods of statistical analysis of answers on objective tests, and so on.
• Detecting and Preventing Classroom Cheating: Promoting Integrity in
Assessment, also by Gregory Cizek (Corwin, 2003), is a thorough over-
Introduction xix
view of cheating in our schools with an emphasis on ways to reduce

cheating by changes in student testing.
A COPY ME page listing these and other books on student cheating, and books
dealing with ethical issues, is in Chapter 1. COPY ME pages listing books and
online resources for teaching about plagiarism are in Chapters 9 and 10.
A word of appreciation
We deeply appreciate our many contributors who took time from busy lives
to tell their stories. Their voices speak with deep commitment from our pages.
Thank you, each of you, for sharing your experiences and your wisdom.
We also appreciate the many helpful comments and suggestions received from
readers of our earlier book. Again, we look forward to hearing from you.
Ann Lathrop Kathleen Foss

alathrop@csulb.edu k_foss@losal.org
References
Callahan, David. The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong
to Get Ahead. New York: Harcourt, 2004.
Parti
FOCUS ON HONESTY
AND INTEGRITY
CHAPTER ONE
Creating a School Culture

of Honesty and Integrity
Interview question: What can you tell me about cheating at your school?
Cheating is no big deal. You just do it—you don't think about it. It's just too
easy. Teachers don't watch students during tests, they sit at their desks and
grade papers. Students can do anything they want to cheat. It goes on so
much, none of the kids think much about it. I don't know of anyone who ever
turned anyone in for cheating. No one tells because they're all cheating too.
They ignore cheaters because there's so much cheating going on. I think you
can stop the cheating—if the teacher cooperates with administrators to stop
the cheating. Teachers could stop the cheating if they wanted to. Our prin-
cipal, I don't know if he had cheating on his mind. He was worried about
other stuff besides cheating. 10th grade boy
Student acceptance of cheating is a fact of life in a school where "everybody

cheats." Honest students know their own grades are lowered when cheaters get
higher scores, but they refuse to "rat out" the cheaters. If "everybody cheats" and
teachers cannot possibly catch all the cheaters or identify all the plagiarized pa-
pers, then it is time for us to find new ways to tackle the problem.
Five years ago we wrote Student Cheating and Plagiarism in the Internet Era: A
Wake-Up Call. The vast amount of information on cheating and plagiarism in print
and online today is enough to have awakened anyone interested in the issue.
In this new book, we challenge you as educators and parents to work together to
change your own school culture from one that tolerates cheating and plagiarism to
one that values and encourages honesty and integrity. The programs, policies, and
resources in this book can support your efforts.
Four important and encouraging changes have occurred since the first book
was published in 2000:
4 Guiding Students from Cheating and Plagiarism to Honesty and Integrity
• Schools are taking the problem more seriously.

• Students are playing a leadership role in seeking and implementing solu-
tions.
• Many more schools now have some form of Academic Integrity Policy.
• Many more Web sites and journal articles focus on ways to prevent stu-
dent cheating and plagiarism.
Teachers, administrators, parents, and students are demanding change, and posi-
tive changes are being made.
The hidden barrier to honesty and integrity

These programs and policies all provide a foundation for change. Sadly, their po-
tential effectiveness is destroyed in many schools and districts by a hidden barrier. To
date there has been little open discussion of this barrier, yet it is the one most difficult
to overcome in truly changing school culture. This barrier is the sometimes public,
but more often hidden, reluctance of parents, teachers, administrators, and School
Board members to enforce an Academic Integrity Policy fairly and impartially.
It is always difficult for a teacher to accuse a student of cheating or plagiarism,
to prove it, and to assign an effective penalty. This takes a great deal of a teacher's
time and can create severe emotional stress. A teacher who identifies and tries to
penalize cheaters may be criticized by other teachers or administrators. In reality,
many teachers do not report student cheating because they do not want to deal
with the problem; they ignore it by assuming that all of their students are honest.
Students know who these teachers are and continue to cheat without penalty in
their classes.
Worse, there are many administrators and School Board members who fail to
support a teacher who does identify and penalize a student for cheating or plagia-
rism. They make excuses, choose to avoid negative publicity, or yield to parental
demands for leniency. Parents add to the problem when they shield students from
the consequences of their dishonesty; some even threaten lawsuits.
It is important that we each accept individual responsibility for the destruction
of this hidden barrier. We must model honesty and integrity for all of our students
by creating and enforcing an Academic Integrity Policy consistently and fairly.
We must accept the challenge to create a true culture of honesty and integrity in
our schools and for our students. Only in this way can we support our honest stu-
dents and give them the level playing field they want and deserve.
How this book is organized

Part I: Focus on Honesty and Integrity
We surveyed students to learn more about why some refuse to cheat, some
cheat whenever they can, and some cheat in many classes but not in all. Student
Creating a School Culture of Honesty and Integrity 5
comments from our surveys and interviews, and a summary of the results, are
in Chapter 2. They are summarized as COPY ME pages and can be effective
discussion starters with students, faculty, and parents. If you use the surveys
with your own students, their comments can provide an effective starting point
for efforts to change your own school culture. Chapter 3 is a reflection on the
students' comments. Chapter 4 turns the focus to the parents' role in developing
student honesty and integrity.
Part II: Leadership in Action

Students and educators who are working together for change describe their pro-
grams. Several schools implemented an Academic Integrity Policy as an important
first step toward change; three were initiated in response to students' requests for
help to combat cheating. Teachers and students suggest ways to reduce cheating
by changing tests and homework assignments. Librarians describe their leadership
roles and urge us to shift our emphasis from the research paper to the research pro-
cess as one way to reduce plagiarism. Athletic directors and administrators tell how
they encourage young athletes to Pursue Victory With Honor.
Part HI: Integrity in the Writing Process

Noted educators offer a variety of approaches to discouraging plagiarism in
student writing. Sample lessons and COPY ME pages support these efforts.
Part IV: Using Technology with Integrity

Chapter 11 explores ways to maintain honesty and integrity in online educa-
tion. Mentioned only briefly in our first book, the increasing importance of online
education now demands this added attention.
Chapter 12 updates the information on high-tech cheating in our first book and
suggests prevention strategies. Much more extensive and specific information on
the prevention of both high-tech and traditional cheating and plagiarism is in Stu-
dent Cheating and Plagiarism in the Internet Era: A Wake-Up Call, and that mate-
rial is not repeated here.
Part V: Appendices
Updated statistics on student cheating and plagiarism are included as back-
ground information in Appendix A. Appendix B includes all student survey forms
used for this book, with permission to use and adapt them for your school.
Appendix C summarizes the topics, related articles, and COPY ME pages cov-
ered in each chapter of Student Cheating and Plagiarism in the Internet Era: A
Wake-Up Call (Libraries Unlimited, 2000).
Resources
Article:
Thomas G. Layton: "The Digital Child"
COPY ME pages:
Michael Josephson: "Cheating Isn't the Problem"
Books and ERIC Documents: Ethical Issues, Student Cheating
See Appendix C for related information in Student Cheating and Plagiarism in
the Internet Era: A Wake-Up Call: Chapter 7, Integrity, Ethics, and Character Edu-
cation.
The Digital Child
Thomas G. Layton
The "digital child" is the boy or girl who came into existence and has lived his or
her whole life in a digital world. This child has never known a time when comput-
ers were not an ordinary part of day-to-day life, or a time when constant change
in the world was not the norm, or a time when it was difficult to access informa-
tion or to communicate with other human beings with little regard to their actual
geographical location.
Time and location

For the digital child, life is a balance between working, learning, playing, and
tending to physical and spiritual needs. Life is not broken up into concrete and
nearly immobile blocks of time as it was for most twentieth-century children.
Instead, all activities are interspersed throughout the day and throughout the year.
Just as time is fitted to the child, so is the location of life's activities. Learning
does not always take place in the same building or even at the same longitude and
latitude. Learning is something that is a constant throughout the day and can occur
anywhere in the virtual world.
Activities
In fact, the lines between learning, work, and play are difficult to distinguish.
Activities are no longer compartmentalized according to time and place—the time
for recess, the place where the computers are housed—and that has tended to blur
the lines. Of course, there are times when the digital child is clearly at play or
clearly at work, but there are also many times when these activities are insepa-
rable.
Relationships
Family relationships, personal relationships, community relationships, work-
ing relationships, and learning relationships form the fabric of the digital child's
existence. These relationships are much less subject to time and place than were
the relationships forged by the twentieth-century child. Digital children learn and
play with people whose age, religion, culture, economic status, and first language
are quite different from their own or those of their parents. And, most likely, a
significant number of these relationships are with people who live thousands of
miles away. This is important because, when they grow up, digital children will be
expected to work with people of any age, religion, culture, economic status, and
first language at any workplace, anywhere.
Technology
An old proverb says, "Fish can't see water." Likewise, our digital child swims
in an ocean of changing technologies. The ebb and flow of new gizmos and sci-
entific discoveries are merely punctuated by occasional technological typhoons
reminiscent of the Y2K storm. Quite at home in this swirling sea, the digital stu-
dent learns to take advantage of each new technological advancement, confidently
awaiting the next new breakthrough.
Learning style
Digital children do not learn in isolation. They might work alone, but they
learn in groups, and some group members may live in other countries. For them,
knowledge is like dropping a pebble in a pond. Waves of understanding wash
over the digital classroom. Working out an answer and sharing it with your digital
classmate is no longer considered cheating. Cheating is keeping the answer to
yourself. Learning is collaborative and social, not solitary and competitive.
Digital children seek relevance. They want to solve real problems. They want
what they do to make a genuine contribution to the world. They instinctively un-
derstand that today's knowledge might turn out to be useless tomorrow. They do
not accept the proposition that they must learn something now because it will be
useful 10 years from now. They know better.
Curriculum
The digital school must prepare students for life in a time of explosive social
change driven by explosive advances in technology. Digital children must learn
to read critically, write effectively, listen intently, and speak fluently. They must
be able to find information, understand the information they locate, evaluate the
reliability of that information, and see how to apply it to answer a pressing ques-
tion or to take advantage of a new opportunity. They must be able to communicate
Creating a School Culture of Honesty and Integrity 9
their ideas to diverse groups using a variety of media. They must also be able to
understand the ideas of others and see how their own concepts might blend with
those of their work-mates to solve problems and create new things.
Quality
The digital community demands quality in education above everything else.
Its members know that an excellent education is the key to thriving in the digital
world. They are not misled by the educational/political trends of the analog twen-
tieth century: Standards will be replaced by choice; test scores will be replaced
by products and solutions; and diplomas will be replaced by the flow from data to
information to insight to wisdom.
[Adapted and reprinted with permission from the author and from Electronic School, an
editorially independent publication of the National School Boards Association.
Thomas G. Layton, a self-professed online learning evangelist, is the originator of Cy-
berSchool (now COOLSchool), coolschool.kl2.or.us, the first Internet-based public high
school distance learning program. He is a consultant with Clarity Innovations, Inc., in
Portland, OR.]
COPY ME
Cheating Isn't the Problem
Michael Josephson
Though rising cheating rates in schools have signaled for a decade that the hole
in our moral ozone is getting bigger, the media seem to have just discovered that
there's a problem. But the new hook they've seized upon concerns the use of high-
tech tools from the Internet to cell phones.
This drives me crazy because the more we focus on all the clever ways young-
sters can cheat, the more likely we are to ignore the fact that the biggest single factor
in escalating academic dishonesty is the failure of parents and teachers to diligently
teach, enforce, advocate and model personal integrity. It's the adults, not the kids,
who have the greatest responsibility to create an ethical culture that nurtures the
virtues of honor, honesty and fairness.
One part of that responsibility is to demonstrate a commitment to the integrity
of exams and grades. Thus, we can solve the problem of high-tech exam cheating
by old-fashioned low-tech methods: Don't let students bring anything into the
exam room that isn't essential to the test! And if calculators are really necessary,
adopt a procedure that assures that students empty the device of any improper
information.
There are many well-established procedures that eliminate or reduce cheating,
such as having alternative forms of exams, not giving the same test at different
times in the day, and assuring that the exam is proctored by an attentive adult who
continuously walks among the test takers. What message do you think schools send
when these simple procedures are ignored?
The truth is we will never solve the cheating problem until those who have
the opportunity to instill values and shape attitudes of young people engage in
thoughtful, systematic and comprehensive efforts to promote integrity and pre-
vent cheating.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that CHARACTER COUNTS! [May
13, 2004]
[Reprinted with permission from the Josephson Institute of Ethics. An archive of radio
addresses is online at www.charactercounts.org. Michael Josephson is founder and Presi-
dent/CEO of the Josephson Institute of Ethics, sponsor of CHARACTER COUNTS! online
at www.josephsoninstitute.org.]
10
COPY ME
Books and ERIC Documents
Ethical Issues
American Association of School Librarians. Information Power: Building Part-
nerships for Learning. Chicago: American Library Association, 1998.
International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). National Educa-
tional Technology Standards Project: for Students (2000); for Teachers (2002);
for Administrators (2002). Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in
Education, 2000-2002.
Johnson, Doug. Learning Right from Wrong in the Digital Age: An Ethics
Guide for Parents, Teachers, Librarians, and Others Who Care About Computer-
Using Young People. Worthington, OH: Lin worth, 2003.
Josephson, Michael, and Melissa Mertz. Honor Above All. Los Angeles, CA:
Josephson Institute of Ethics, 2004.
Lee, David L., et al. How to Deal Effectively with Lying, Stealing, and Cheat-
ing. Austin, TX: Pro Ed, 2003.
Satterlee, Anita G. "Academic Dishonesty among Students: Consequences and
Interventions." July 2002. ERIC (ED 469 468).
Simpson, Carol, ed. Ethics In School Librarianship: A Reader. Worthington,
OH: Linworth, 2003.
Willard, Nancy E. Computer Ethics, Etiquette, & Safety for the 21st Century
Student. Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education, 2002.
Student Cheating
Bopp, Mary, et al. Reducing Incidents of Cheating in Adolescence. Master of
Arts Action Research Project. Chicago: Saint Xavier U. 2001. (ED 456127)
Callahan, David. The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing
Wrong to Get Ahead. New York: Harcourt, 2004. www.cheatingculture.com/
davidcallahaninterview.htm
Cizek, Gregory J. Cheating on Tests: How to Do It, Detect It, and Prevent It.
Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1999.
Cizek, Gregory J. Detecting and Preventing Classroom Cheating: Promoting
Integrity in Assessment. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin, 2003.
Lathrop, Ann, and Kathleen E. Foss. Student Cheating and Plagiarism in the
Internet Era: A Wake-Up Call. Libraries Unlimited, 2000.
Whitley, Bernard E., Jr., and Patricia Keith-Spiegel. Academic Dishonesty: An
Educator's Guide. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2002.
Reprinted with permission of the authors: Guiding Students from Cheating and Pla
rism to Honesty and Integrity: Strategies for Change, by Ann Lathrop and Kathleen F
(Libraries Unlimited, 2005). Permission is granted to make print copies for class
tion, discussion groups, workshops, conferences, or newsletters. This material ms
placed on a Web site or distributed in any digital format. This statement must appe
11
CHAPTER TWO
Student Voices
I Don't Cheat
/ would never cheat in any class because of integrity. Most people my age
don't have that, but I do. I want to know that I did the work and Fm really
that smart by my grades. I don't cheat because I did the thinking. My knowl-
edge, not someone else's, is golden to me. "I think, therefore I am"—some
famous dude, I forget his name. 7th grade boy
I Cheat
Cheating is the "cool" thing to do. It's like having the latest designer shoes
or the uhip" haircut. It's an accepted fact among students that we all cheat,
and it's considered a sin to turn someone in. Since so many students cheat,
no one really considers how immoral it is. It's as habitual as inhaling and
exhaling, or brushing one's teeth. 11th grade girl
Many students do not cheat. Why not? Others cheat at every opportunity. Why?
What makes students cheat in some classes but not in others? Student responses
to these questions, as reported to us in a 2004 survey, are summarized in this
chapter.
We received comments from more than 600 students, grades 7-12, from
schools in five states. The schools were selected because we knew a librarian
there who was willing to help. The box indicates what we asked the students to tell
us. All four questions were placed at the top of the page so someone glancing at a
student's paper would not know which question was being answered.
Please choose ONE question to write about. Circle the question you choose:
1 2 3 4
1. If you cheat in all or most all of your classes, why do you cheat?
2. Describe one time when you could have cheated in school but you didn't. Why
did you decide not to cheat?
3. Why would you never cheat, even when other students are cheating?
4. If you cheat in some classes, but there is one class you absolutely would
never cheat in, why don't you cheat in that class?
We tabulated a total of 906 comments after eliminating those that were il-
legible, too short, or too general. Of these, 676 comments were responses to
"Why I Don't Cheat" and 230 comments were responses to "Why I Cheat."
Some students wrote only one or two sentences; others filled the page, and a
few even wrote on the back.
There is no statistical analysis of these surveys and we draw no scientific
conclusions. We found the comments interesting and you may wish to survey
your own students for a comparison.
These surveys, and others that we used in our first book, are in Appendix B.
Permission is granted to use them "as is" or to adapt them. We suggest that you
clear any survey with your administration before asking students to complete
it. The results can provide interesting material for discussion in class or at fac-
ulty and parent meetings.
Three COPY ME pages summarize the responses, followed by additional
COPY ME pages with selected student comments. We organized responses into
three categories:
1. Why I don't cheat

2. Why I cheat
3. Why I cheat in some classes but not in others
We use [Teacher] to replace any teacher's name in a response. Some spell-

ing errors were corrected automatically by our word processor; the other errors
remain. The grammar and underlining are all theirs. We are especially fond of the
first statement at the beginning of this chapter.
Discussion
Far and away the most disturbing student comments were those identifying
teacher behaviors that make cheating easy, or even encourage cheating. When
"Teacher makes cheating easy" is combined with "I don't like / respect the
teacher," this category becomes the most frequent survey response. It also may be
the category we can change most easily to make cheating more difficult.
Student Voices 15
One unexpected result was that only 23 of the 906 student comments men-
tioned parents' attitudes or moral standards. This may indicate that parents are
failing to give moral direction to their children.
The statements were written anonymously and there is no way to determine the
degree of honesty in the survey. However, many statements have the ring of truth
and they target student and teacher practices that need to be changed if we are to
reach our goal of creating a culture of honesty and integrity in our schools.
Resources
Article:
Jason M. Stephens: "Justice or Just Us? What to Do About Cheating"
COPY ME pages:
Student Voices
Student Comments / Discussion
See survey forms in Appendix B.
See Appendix C for related information in Student Cheating and Plagiarism in the
Internet Era: A Wake-Up Call: Chapter 4, Why We Are Alarmed.
COPY ME
Student Voices: Why I Don't Cheat
This tabulation summarizes the relative frequency of student responses.

responses (%)
A. Pride in work / desire to learn 194 (21 %)
I studied, know the material / I ' m smart /1 don't need to cheat (70)
I want to earn my grades / challenge myself / reach my potential (52)
I need to learn the material for my career, for college, for athletics (51)
A test should show what I know, not what someone else knows (21)
B Consequences and penalties 165 (18%)
- Afraid to get caught (113)
Severe consequences / expulsion / poor college referrals (52)
C. Moral beliefs and values 164 (18%)
Cheating is bad / I'd feel guilty / conscience bothers me (106)
Religious beliefs / moral values / want to respect myself (28)
Cheating is a bad habit / can't cheat through life, in real world (15)
Cheating only hurts myself / cheating myself of an education (15)
D. Peers 46(5%)
The student I'm copying from may not know any more than I do (22)
Cheating isn't fair to students who worked hard for their grade (21)
I want my friends to respect me (3)
E. Parents 13(1%)
Would be disappointed in me / punish me (10)
Say "don't cheat" (3)
F. Academic Integrity Policy / Honor Code at school 8 (1 %)
• An Academic Integrity Policy / Honor Code is helpful (8)
Student Voices: Why I Cheat

responses (%)
G. Cheating is easier than studying 65 (7%)
• I'm lazy / didn't study (29)
• Studying takes too much time / have a job / have better things to do (26)
• Cheating is fun / it's easy / it's a challenge (10)
H. Grades 57 (6%)
• Need to pass the class / I'm failing / need a better grade (31)
• Need good grades for college entry or sports (18)
• Class or test is too hard / can't get good grades even if I study (8)
Student Voices 17
I. Peers 11(1%)
• Friends help me to cheat / expect me to help them cheat (11)
J. Parents 10(1%)
• Expect / demand good grades (10)
Student Voices: Why I Cheat In Some Classes But Not In Others

responses (%)
K. Classroom management / "some teachers make cheating easy" 59 (7%)
Teacher leaves room during tests (22)
Teacher works at desk during tests / doesn't pay attention to class (6)
Teacher doesn't care if we cheat / doesn't try to prevent cheating (7)
Substitute teachers make it really easy to cheat (3)
Tests / answer keys are left out on desk during or before test (7)
Desks / chairs at table are close together so it's easy to copy (6)
Teacher lets us correct our own papers or correct a friend's paper (3)
Students take make-up tests in a room without supervision (2)
Students from earlier periods tell us test questions for later in day (3)
Teacher's positive relationship with student 4646 (5
Teacher trusts me / would feel bad, lose respect for me if I cheat (23)
I like or respect the teacher / like the class (23)
M. Classroom management / "some teachers make cheating hard" 40 (4%)
Teacher watches us / checks everything so we won't cheat / is strict (38)
Teacher tries hard to be sure we learn everything / really cares (2)
N. Negative attitude toward learning / toward teacher 14 (2%)
Class isn't important to me / not useful for college / is a joke (7)
I don't like / respect the teacher (7)
O. Homework 14 (2%)
Too much homework /it's just busy work (9)
Friends help me / expect me to share homework (5)
Reprinted with permission of the authors: Guiding Students from Cheating and
Plagiarism to Honesty and Integrity: Strategies for Change, by Ann Lathrop and
Kathleen Foss (Libraries Unlimited, 2005). Permission is granted to make print
copies for class instruction, discussion groups, workshops, conferences, or news-
letters. This material must not be placed on a Web site or distributed in any digital
format. This statement must appear in its entirety on each print copy.
COPY ME
Student Comments / Discussion: Why I Don't Cheat
A. Pride in work / desire to learn: 194 total comments

Discussion: This category has the largest number of responses. It also has some
of the most indignant ones, made by students who were offended by the mere idea
that they might need to cheat.
I studied / know the material / I'm smart /1 don't need to cheat (70)
• / had stayed up till 1 o'clock a.m. studying because it was going to
be the last grade of the quarter. [Teacher] went out of the classroom
and some people started sharing answers. I was about to because I
couldn't think straight and I needed a lot of help on some questions.
I didn't cheat though because I felt very confident about my grade
on the test. The next day, I got my test back and found out that I only
missed one question, but I still got an A. I am a very good guy!!!!! 8th
grade boy
• This one time I was going to cheat for my Spanish final. I stayed
up making a Cheatsheet. But when I came to it writing all that stuff
down helped me to study and I knew the material when the time
came so I ripped up the Cheatsheet. 12th grade boy
• / am smart enough to get a good grade without the help of other people.
When other people are cheating I just do my work and then sit back and
hope they get caught. 8th grade boy
Want to earn my grades / challenge myself / reach my potential (52)
• / would never cheat because I like the satisfactory of getting good
grades on my own. When a hard test comes up and I've been studying
like crazy, it feels good to get a good grade. I also get the satisfaction
of knowing I learned something. 9th grade boy
• If you cheat what grade you got on that assignment really isn't yours so
you can't have pride in it. It is a cheap imitation of the real thing. 12th
grade girl
• There's no better feeling than aceing the test and knowing that you did it
on your own! 9th grade girl
• It is about keeping your dignity and challenging yourself. 10th grade
boy
Need to learn the material for my career / for college / for athletics (51)
• / definately don't cheat in math because I really need to know that stuff
for the future. 10th grade girl
• I wouldn't cheat in Spanish because I actually want to learn that lan-
guage. 10th grade boy
Student Voices 19
• If I were to never cheat in a class it would be math. I think that math is

the only class we will need in life so I take it a little more serious then
other classes. 12th grade boy
• If I am cheating, I'm not learning anything and if I want to be a Physi-
cal Therapist then I can't cheat. I'll never get through pre-med and med
school. 9th grade boy
Test should show what I know, not what someone else knows (21)
• / always want to earn my grades. If I get an AI want to do it on my own,
or if I get an "F" I want to do it on my own so I know what I did wrong.
8th grade girl
• My grades are reflective of my work habits and effort, not of my ability
to glance sneakily at a paper. 8th grade girl
• / would never cheat because I want to learn. I feel that the whole point of
taking a test is so your teacher can see if you understand the material that
he or she has taught you. It is also a test so you can understand too. 11th
grade boy
B. Consequences and penalties: 165 total comments

Discussion: Students are concerned by the possibility of being caught and the
penalties they might face. Important factors are whether the teacher would "actu-
ally do anything about it" and if there would, in fact, be any penalty enforced.
Afraid to get caught (113)
• / know many students who cheat but for me the risk of getting caught is
too great. Cheating might get me an A on a test but if I got caught I would
get a zero. 11th grade girl
• I'm afraid of being embarrassed by getting caught. 12th grade boy
Severe consequences / expulsion / poor college referrals (52)
• / wouldn 't cheat in Physics because I think that's the only class where the
teacher would actually do anything about it. 12th grade boy
• To me it is not worth cheating in math. If you are caught you are given a
zero on the test and a referral. 12th grade boy
• The reason why I wouldn't cheat is because of the consequences. You
could get your test taking away. You could get detention. You could also
be sent to the office. You could even be suspended for a day or two. 7th
grade boy
C. Moral beliefs and values: 164 total comments

Discussion: Statements indicate that many students do hold strong moral and reli-
gious values. Yet only 18 percent of student responses mentioned these values as
an important reason not to cheat.
Cheating is bad /I'd feel guilty / conscience bothers me (106)

• It is dishonest, lazy, and contrary to the principle of self-reliance. 12th
grade girl
• If I only got a good grade because I copied someone else's paper or
plagirized, I would feel guilty about receiving a good grade. 11th grade
girl
• / personally have a guilty conscience if I do something wrong, I feel
physically ill, so cheating is not really a possibility when it comes to my
own health and welfare. 12th grade girl
• Whenever I feel like I'm going to do something bad I always ask myself,
"What would I tell my children." Like, "Yeah, I used to always cheat."
That would just be stupid and I'd rather not lie to my children and feel
bad about myself. 9th grade girl
Religious beliefs / moral values / want to respect myself (28)

• / never cheat because its wrong and very bad for your karma. God does
not approve. 12th grade boy
• I was brought up in a Christian household. It is wrong for someone to get
the fruits of another's labor. 10th grade girl
• / don't cheat because on the first day of school, [Teacher] told us that
a truly honest person means being honest even when no one is there to
witness it. Whenever I have the urge to cheat because I don't know an
answer, I always remember [Teacher's] words. After that, all I can do is
try my hardest and I get whichever grade I get, my conscience is clean,
and that's what is most important to me. 7th grade girl
• I'd never cheat. Ever! It's morally wrong and I want to go to heaven.
11th grade boy
• / never cheat because I know it is not right and God would not want me
to. 9th grade boy
Cheating is a bad habit / can't cheat through life, in real world (15)
• Cheating now doesn 't help you in the long run, eventually there won't be
anyone to cheat off of and you'll be, for lack of a better word, screwed.
12th grade girl
• I have thought of cheating before. However, I do not do it, because I
know the consequences. Even if I don't get caught, I can't develop a
habit of cheating throughout life. 10th grade girl
• You will never get anywhere by cheating. You may get good grades from
it now but when you get older you will fail right out. Then your life is
ruined. 7th grade boy
Student Voices 21
• I want to be able to get into a good college, and if I cheat now, I might
never stop, and if I get caught there, I can only look forward to flipping
burgers my whole life. I don't cheat for my future. 8th grade boy
Cheating only hurts myself / cheating myself of an education (15)
• If you cheat, your not cheating against anyone but yourself. You will
never understand the questions on the test and you will probably have
problems in the future. 7th grade girl
• If I don't know the material that I am supposed to, it makes it harder for
me to progress into a higher level. 8th grade boy
• What's the point of cheating? It's like lying on your resume to get a hard
job then when you get there you can't perform up to expectation. In the
end you just screw yourself. 12th grade girl
D. Peers: 46 total comments

Discussion: The responses were refreshingly frank in recognizing that another
student's answers could be wrong and commenting on how unfair cheating is to
the student who actually studied for the test or did the homework assignment.
The student I'm copying from may not know any more than I do (22)
• Cheating is pointless and useless. First off why should I trust other peo-
ple's answers over mine? That's an insult to my own intelligence. 11th
grade boy
• I would never cheat because you never know if the people you are cheat-
ing off of even have the right answers. 7th grade girl
• The person could be easily lying to me and purposely be giving me in-
correct answers or the person could be un-intelligent and have wrong
answers. 9th grade girl
Cheating isn't fair to other students who worked hard for their grade (21)
• / never cheat because it isn't fair to your classmates and peers. If my
friend was in my class and I cheated, and the teacher graded on a curve,
and his/her grade dropped because of guys like me, I wouldfeel horrible.
9th grade boy
• From an ethical standpoint, cheating is a horrible thing to do; the student
that studies is taken advantage of, and the student that cheats gains noth-
ing but a grade. 12th grade girl
• Someone worked hard and figured out the answers and then you just
copy. I think that that is a very rude thing to do. This is why I never cheat.
8th grade girl
• None of the kids try to cheat in Honors Biology. One tried to cheat on a
test but no one would help him. Everyone in that class works hard and no
one wants to help someone who doesn't work. 10th grade boy
I want my friends to respect me (3)

• People always respect individuals for doing well or trying their hardest,
they don't respect cheaters and eventually everyone will find out if you
cheated. The risks are too big, your credibility is shot, so is your reputa-
tion as a student. 12th grade girl
• I can't think of any of my friends who cheat in class. I try to surround
myself with peers who try to achieve similar goals as myself, such as
work hard and get good grades. 8th grade girl
E. Parents: 13 total comments

Discussion: Only 13 students mentioned their parents. This small number was
our most unexpected result and may indicate that parents are failing to give moral
direction to their children.
Would be disappointed in me / punish me (10)
• Why I didn't cheat was because of my mom. She often reminds me that
she'd rather me fail a test rather than to lie and cheat on one. 8th grade
girl
• Just because other students are imature and don't study doesn't mean
you should follow their example. Besides, my mom and dad would kill
me if they ever found out. 9th grade girl
• / don't cheat 'cause my parents work at school and my life would be a
living hell if I did. It's not worth it anyway. 9th grade girl
• My mother would be heartbroken if I got in trouble for cheating. 11th
grade girl
• My parents, my teachers and my friends all trust me. To cheat, if I got
caught, I would lose all of that trust. I want to keep that trust. 7th grade
girl
Say "don't cheat" (3)
• My parents have instilled into me that cheating is wrong and I feel guilty
as hell if I think of cheating. I don't know but it's like betraying them
or something. To tell the truth parent trust is quite difficult to get. 10th
grade girl
• My parents raised me with enough pride in myself and my abilities that
I don't usually feel tempted. 11th grade girl
Student Voices 23
F. Academic Integrity Policy / Honor Code at school: 8 total comments

Discussion: One school had an Honor Council in place and another had recently
implemented an Academic Integrity Policy at the time of the survey, yet only eight
student comments mentioned the policies.
• / am on Honor Council and I know the consequences and I have a con-
science. 10th grade girl
• Teachers often leave the room and I've been tempted to cheat. But then I
remember [Teacher] and his honor council speeches so I don't. 9th grade
girl
Author's note: Student comments are unedited except for the use of [Teacher]
to replace any teacher's name in a response and some spelling errors corrected
automatically by our word processor.
COPY ME
Student Comments / Discussion: Why I Cheat
G. Cheating is easier than studying: 65 total comments

Discussion: These students clearly find it easier and more rewarding to cheat than
to complete their work honestly. Their comments emphasize the need for more
effective identification of cheaters and more consistent assignment of penalties.
I'm lazy / didn't study (29)
• / needed the grade and I was too lazy or stupid to learn the stuff so I just
took the easy way out and thought of smart ways to cheat without being
caught. 12th grade boy
• I'm lazy. I'm fully aware that it's hindering my education and develop-
ment, but I still do it. 12th grade boy
• Cheating or copying is just easier than doing the work honestly. 10th
grade girl
• I love to cheat. It takes no effort. I love not having to do any work to get As
on all my tests. Cheating is the way to go. 11th grade boy
• Because I'm lazy. 8th grade boy
Cheating is fun / it's easy / it's a challenge (10)

• Students get satisfaction from outsmarting a teacher and taking a short-
cut. 11th grade boy
• It's easy. There are so many unnoticeable ways, i.e. under watchband,
water bottle, hat brim. 12th grade boy
• / get a thrill almost from cheating. 8th grade girl
• Cheating is not bad, you take a chance to get caught. It is as much a skill
to cheat than to actually study for a test. Cheating is great!! 12th grade
boy
Studying takes too much time / have a job / have better things to do (26)
• Because I have to get good grades, or my mom will be disappointed with
me. Also I work at Hooters till 10 every day so I have no time for study-
ing. 11th grade girl
• Most teenagers of today are lazy and have more important things to do
than work on a paper or project. 12th grade boy
• Studying takes time when cheating takes only a matter of seconds. 9th
grade girl
• I cheat in my classes because I don't have time to study. 10th grade girl
• I play soccer 4 nights a week for 2 hours each day and that leaves ex-
tremely little time for homework so I do as much as possible @ school
and cheat to get it all done. 8th grade boy
Student Voices 25
H. Grades: 57 total comments

Discussion: Many students need good grades and see cheating as the way to get
them. They will continue to cheat as long as they can do so without penalty.
Need to pass the class / I'm failing / need a better grade (31)
• / only cheat if I really need to, if I know I'm going to fail. 12th grade
boy
• I only cheat enough to keep my head above the water though. I don't
cheat to succeed, but to survive in a class. 10th grade boy
• I'm a smart kid, but I'm just not brave enough to fail. 12th grade girl
• I cheat to pass the class. 12th grade boy
Need good grades for college entry, sports (18)
• Cheating is now expected among students, even some parents. Grades
depend in some cases solely what college you get into. 11th grade girl
• Cheating isn't about the excitement, it's about getting the grade the UC
or Cal State wants. 11th grade boy
• / will cheat so I do not do poorly. Even though it's shallow, this is a situ-
ation where uthe end justifies the means." 8th grade girl
• If we were just to take the zero points for homework or the F on the test,
do you realize how much our grade would suffer? High school grades
depict our future. I do not plan on letting some grades that are hardly fair
ruin me for the rest of my life. 12th grade girl
• We cheat because we want to get better grades, either for sports, or so
we could get our parents praise and proudness of us. 10th grade boy
Class or test is too hard / can't get good grades even if I study (8)
• / cheat sometimes, when the teacher gives tests that I feel they have not
prepared us for. If I feel like I am being cheated, then I think I can cheat.
9th grade boy
• I cheat because I don't know the information or understand all the mate-
rial that was taught in class. 9th grade girl
• Because I hate school; because it overwhelms me, because I hate home
work, because my teachers suck, because I don't know the anser, because
I work really hard and still get bad grades, and thats why. 8th grade boy
• I cheat because teachers expect you to know everything, they teach you
very little and expect very much. I wouldn't say I am a cheater, I would
say I'm somebody who doesn't understand the material. Peace. 10th
grade boy
I. Peers: 11 total comments

Discussion: An Academic Integrity Policy provides students with an acceptable
reason to refuse a friend's request for unpermitted help on homework or a test.
Friends help me to cheat / expect me to help them cheat (11)

• If I'm very good and a friend is not good at that class, I would let her
cheat off me. 10th grade girl
• There are people who help others cheat, either because they are friends
or they feel some kind of pity for them, seeing them struggle where
they themselves are excelling. 12th grade boy
J. Parents: 10 total comments

Discussion: The very few students who mentioned parents was our most un-
expected result. Parents may be, by omission, responsible for their children's
cheating.
Expect / demand good grades (10)
• Students these days have so much on them that in some cases if they
don't do well they will be punished, so they feel that is their only option.
11th grade girl
• I don't usually study. And if I got a bad grade, I would die a horrible
death by my mom. 9th grade boy
• My parents lately have become obsessed with my grades and I feel that
if I don't cheat and I do bad that I will be a failure in my parents eyes.
11th grade girl
• I cheat because I want to get good grades to make my parents proud.
7th grade boy
Student Voices 27
COPY ME
Student Comments / Discussion: Why I Cheat

In Some Classes But Not In Others
K. Classroom management / "some teachers make cheating easy": 59 total

comments
Discussion: These comments were the most disturbing ones in the survey. They
identify teacher behaviors that can and should be changed. It is unrealistic to ex-
pect students to value honesty when "teachers make it so easy to cheat."
Teacher leaves room during tests (22)
• Teachers that leave the room during testing, it's like a Chinesefiredrill. 9th
grade boy
• A while back, our teacher had basically given up on teaching because he
knew he was to retire anyways, so we figured that he would probably end
up leaving the room while we were taking the test, and he did. 12th grade
girl
• The teacher left for a moment and everyone started sharing answers.
10th grade boy
• I cheat in all of my classes because the teachers make it so easy to cheat.
When I cheat I get good grades. 8th grade girl
• The teacher had left the room and many of the other students decided to
take advantage of this opportunity and ask their neighbors for help. 11th
grade boy
Teacher works at desk during tests, doesn't pay attention to class (6)
• Some teachers notice everything so I'm too afraid to cheat in those
classes, but other teachers leave the classroom or don't pay attention so
then I cheat. 10th grade girl
• Some classes are easier to cheat in because the teacher doesn't walk
around and scan the room to see who's cheating or talking, etc. 11th
grade girl
• My English teacher always sits behind her computer doing other things.
8th grade girl
Teacher doesn't care if we cheat, doesn't try to prevent cheating (7)
• / cheat in some of my classes because my teachers are really clueless and
they would never know. 10th grade girl
• Some teachers are good at catching but most are bad. 9th grade boy
• He of course forgot about all the maps showing the 13 colonys on his
walls. And I saw many of the kids looking at these maps but I didn 't need
them so I just took my test got an A and told the teacher about the maps.
9th grade boy
• Some teachers see cheating and neglect to act. 11th grade girl
Substitute teachers make it really easy to cheat (3)
• If there is a sub that's the best time to cheat because they don't know
what's going on. 12th grade boy
Tests / answer keys are left out on desk during or before test (7)
• One time in math we were taking a test and I sat by the teachers desk and
the answers were on his desk. 8th grade girl
• Our chemistry teacher left the class and a student went on his computer
to play a game as our teacher allowed us to do. He found the final on the
computer so he saved it on a disk and offered to give it to people at a later
date. 12th grade girl
Desks / chairs at table are close together so it's easy to copy (6)
• Our class is set up in rows, so it's easy to look. 8th grade boy
• We just sit scattered all over the room and we all have our backpacks next
to us so it's crowded and it's easy to look at a paper with answers. 9th
grade girl
Teacher lets us correct our own papers or correct a friend's paper (3)
• We have a quiz every day and switch papers to grade. We can keep our
own paper or switch with a buddy. So we get most of the answers right.
12th grade girl
Students take make-up tests in a room without supervision (2)
• / was taking a final in the library by myself with no supervision. 12th
grade girl
• My teacher let me go in an empty room, with my backpack, to take a test.
12th grade boy
Students from earlier periods tell us test questions for later in day (3)
• Someone tells someone in a later period what is on the test, most people
do it. 12th grade girl
• People like me, we ask our friends, who've taken the test in an earlier
class, what's on the test. Some people might not even consider this cheat-
ing, but deep down I know its wrong. 12th grade girl
L. Teacher's positive relationship with student: 46 total comments

Discussion: These statements reaffirm the value of a positive teacher-student rela-
tionship and the important influence a teacher has on student behavior.
Teacher trusts me / would feel bad, lose respect for me if I cheat (23)
Student Voices 29
• / would never cheat in my Honors U.S. history class because the teacher
is extremely strict. I know how extremely disappointed she would be
and I don't think I could carry the stigmatizm of being a cheater in her
class. 12th grade girl
• I would never cheat in my English class because I had a personal rela-
tionship with my teacher. He took cheating very personally and I didn't
want my coach to be disappointed in me. 12th grade boy
• One of my goals every year is to impress my teacher. I wouldn't cheat
because I would get into trouble which is not impressing my teacher.
9th grade girl
• I simply respect that teacher too much to cheat. 8th grade boy
I like or respect the teacher / like the class (23)
• / wouldn't cheat in that one class because I respected the teacher and
actually cared about what they thought of me. When a teacher shows
respect to you it is a lot harder to cheat than if the teacher isn 't respect-
ful. 11th grade girl
• The reason why I wouldn't cheat would be out of respect for a cer-
tain teacher I liked very much. I think that if you respect the teacher
you should respect them with honesty. [Teacher] let us grade our
own tests and by respecting us, he made us want to respect ourselfs
and him by not cheating. 12th grade boy
• [Teacher] is not a teacher who favors a smart student over a lesser
one. Even when I don't do as good as I wanted on something I know
she won't hold it against me. I know she will help me to do better next
time. 10th grade girl
M. Classroom management / "some teachers make cheating hard": 40 total

comments
Discussion: Students are very aware of teacher attitudes and behaviors that
strongly discourage cheating. For many, a personal relationship with the teacher
is an important factor in their "cheat-don't cheat" decision.
Teacher watches us, checks everything so we won't cheat, is strict (38)
• / would never cheat in my history class. My teacher is incredibly precau-
tions and checks everything, even every little thing on the Works Cited. I
think she is a very good teacher. 10th grade girl
• Some teachers make us roll up our sleeves and check our arms for notes.
Our math teacher checks our calculators. 12th grade boy
• The teacher always is looking around the room and checking backpacks
and people who are hiding things, so it is not worth it. 10th grade boy
• There are some classes where you would just never cheat in. Those are usu-
ally the classes with the strictest and most careful teachers. 10th grade girl
• / don't know the teacher well and he has a crazy policy against cheating.
12th grade boy
Teacher tries hard to be sure we learn everything / really cares (2)
• / would never cheat in U.S. history with [Teacher]. She makes us take
notes every day and makes sure we understand the material by playing
review games. It is easier to study than cheat in that class. 10th grade
girl
• There was a time in [Teacher's] U.S. History class. We had a test coming
up, but his tests were different from any other. The day before, he would
give us the essay questions and we had the whole period to look them up,
and bring them up to him to find out if it was wrong or right. 12th grade
boy
N. Negative Attitude Toward Learning / Toward Teacher: 14 total

comments
Discussion: Positive changes in teacher behavior can lead to more positive stu-
dent attitudes toward learning and toward the class. Efforts also can be made to
help students understand the value of any given class and why it can be important
to their lives.
Class isn't important to me, not useful for college, is a joke (7)
• / would cheat in history class on a final exam because in the real world,
nobody cares who led the 54th cavalry in the Civil war. 8th grade boy
• I definitely don't cheat in math because I'm going to really need to know
that stuff for the future, but when it's something I don't need why not
cheat? 11th grade girl
• The curriculum is BS and I spend time on more relevant things. 10th
grade boy
I don't like / respect the teacher (7)
• / know that if I get a teacher who is a jerk, I don 'tfeel like trying for them or
caring much about their class so I will cheat. 12th grade boy
• Why do we cheat? For two reasons: 1) We don't like the teacher and/or
the class. 2) We feel we can get away with something we haven't earned.
10th grade girl
• If the teacher is mean or does unfair things, then I don't feel bad about
cheating. 11th grade girl
O. Homework: 14 total comments

Discussion: The challenge here is to create homework assignments that stu-
dents regard as meaningful and important to their own learning. It also could be
helpful for teachers in academic departments to cooperatively schedule lengthy
Student Voices 31
homework assignments, project due dates, and major tests so students do not have
three or more of these on the same day.
Too much homework / it's just busywork (9)
• Teachers believe that they are the only ones to give us an hour or more
of homework and that we have no personal life. 12th grade girl
• Cheating on homework is less offensive to me because I place less value
on busywork. 12th grade girl
• / look at work as a waste of time because on tests I usually score 90% or
higher. If you don't need the practice then why do it? 12th grade boy
Friends help me / expect me to share homework (5)
• My friend let me copy her homework and we got caught. There weren't
really any consequences. 8th grade girl
Justice or Just Us? What to Do
About Cheating
(abridged, see below for complete article online)
Jason M. Stephens
Adults always seem shocked and surprised to learn of student cheating, espe-
cially in high-achieving and high-socioeconomic schools. They shouldn't be so
surprised. Research in high schools shows that two thirds of students cheat on
tests, and 90 percent cheat on homework. The figures are almost as high among
college students. Furthermore, it is clear that rates of cheating have gone up over
the past three decades.
Why? Do students fail to understand that cheating is wrong? Well, yes and no.
In a recent study of high school students that I conducted, many students acknowl-
edged that cheating is wrong but admitted they do it anyway, seemingly without
much remorse. They cheat for simple, pragmatic reasons—to get high grades and
because they don't have time to do the work carefully. Especially for college-
bound students, the pressure for grades is real. According to the Higher Education
Research Institute's annual survey, 47 percent of incoming college freshmen in
2003 reported having earned an A average in high school.
But despite the pressure for consistently high grades, students don't generally
cheat in all of their classes. And somewhat surprisingly, it is not the difficulty of
the course that predicts in which classes they are more likely to cheat. Instead, I
found that high school students cheat more when they see the teacher as less fair
and caring and when their motivation in the course is more focused on grades
and less on learning and understanding. At least in these classes, they can justify
cheating. They don't claim it is morally acceptable, but they don't seem to feel
that it really matters if they cheat under these circumstances.
In most studies of cheating, the researcher decides which behaviors constitute
cheating, and students are only asked to report how often they engage in those
behaviors. In my survey of high school students, I asked them to report both their
level of engagement in a set of 11 "academic behaviors," as well as their beliefs
concerning whether or not those behaviors were "cheating." Not surprisingly, the
Student Voices 33
vast majority (85 percent or more) indicated that behaviors such as "copying from
another student during a test" and "using banned crib notes or cheat sheets during
a test" were cheating. However, only 18 percent believed that "working on an
assignment with other students when the teacher asked for individual work" was
cheating.
Subsequent interviews with a small sub-sample of these students revealed that
students regarded this forbidden collaboration as furthering their knowledge and
understanding, and therefore saw it as an act of learning rather than a form of
cheating. These findings suggest that students make a distinction between behav-
iors that are overtly dishonest (such as copying the work of another, which effec-
tively serves to misrepresent one's state of knowledge) and behaviors that are not
inherently dishonest (such as working with others, which can serve to enrich one's
interpersonal skills and academic learning). Educators, too, should be cognizant
of this distinction and be judicious in prohibiting collaboration.
With this pervasiveness of acceptance by students, is it acceptable to us as a
society to tacitly accept cheating as a fact of life and not be so shocked when it
comes to light? I don't think so. Cutting corners and compromising principles are
habit-forming. They don't stop at graduation, as we have seen in recent scandals
in business and journalism. And cheating or cutting corners in one's professional
or personal life can cause real damage—both to oneself and to others. We need
to care about it.
And I believe we can do something about it. The best ways to reduce cheating
are all about good teaching. In fact, if efforts to deal with cheating don't emerge
from efforts to educate, they won't work—at least not when vigilance is reduced.
These suggestions are easier said than done, but I believe they point in the right
direction, both for academic integrity and for learning more generally.
• Help students understand the value of what they're being asked to learn
by creating learning experiences that connect with their interests and
have real-world relevance.
• Consider whether some of the rules that are frequently broken are arbi-
trary or unnecessarily constraining. For example, is individual effort on
homework always so important? Given the evidence that collaboration
in doing homework supports learning, it doesn't seem so.
• As much as possible, connect assessment integrally with learning. Create
assessments that are fair and meaningful representations of what stu-
dents should have learned. Make sure assessments provide informative
feedback and thus contribute to improved performance. When possible,
individualize evaluations of students' progress and offer them privately.
Avoid practices that invite social comparisons of performance.
• Give students images of people who don't cut corners: scientists who
discover things they don't expect because they approach their work with
an impeccable respect for truth and a genuinely open mind; business
people who exemplify integrity even when it seems like it might cost
them something. But don't preach. Take seriously the fact that, in some
contexts, being consistently honest can be hard.
Finally, as educators, we must do our best to exemplify intellectual integrity

ourselves—in everything from how we treat students and each other to how we
approach the subject matter, to how we approach mandatory high-stakes testing,
to how we think and talk about politics. We need to look for ways to make deep
and searching honesty both palpable and attractive.
[Abridged and reprinted with permission of the author and The Carnegie Foundation for
the Advancement of Teaching. The original article was published in the May 2004 issue of
Carnegie Perspectives, online at www.carnegiefoundation.org/perspectives/perspectives
2004.May.htm.
Dr. Stephens is on the faculty of the Department of Educational Psychology at the Univer-
sity of Connecticut. This article was written during his tenure as a research assistant at The
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.]
CHAPTER THREE
Responding to the Students
There are two types of cheaters in high school today. Type one cheats to
get into Harvard or Yale. Type two cheats because cheating is easier than
learning and the teachers just don't care. 10th grade girl
I would never cheat in [Teacher's] class because I know that would really
hurt her feelings. Plus, she really does want her students to do well, and gives
us lots of opportunities to do extra credit so we will make good grades. 10th
grade girl
Student comments in Chapter 2 make it clear they recognize those teachers who
actively work to prevent cheating and plagiarism. They also recognize the teach-
ers who don't seem to care about cheating, do little to prevent it, or ignore it when
they do see it. These are the teachers who leave the room or work at their desks
during testing while students check their cheat sheets, call friends on cell phones
for help, and share answers with each other.
Honest students become frustrated and angry when rampant cheating forces a
seemingly impossible choice on them: join the cheating despite their own strong
moral convictions against it, or watch their honestly earned grades lose value as
cheaters move ahead of them to the top of the class and into the best colleges.
We must put an end to cheating and plagiarism to protect our honest students.
Our instructional and assessment strategies must be changed to give honest stu-
dents the level playing field they deserve. Assessments must reflect students' true
academic ability rather than their skill in cheating and plagiarizing. Last, but by
no means least, we must focus time and attention on the ethical and moral de-
velopment of our students. Each of us has an important role to play in working
toward these goals.
The role of the Board of Education

The Board of Education sets district policy. The adoption of an Academic In-
tegrity Policy as official district policy makes a strong statement that the district is
committed to honesty and integrity. This crucial first step in establishing the impor-
tance of the policy also provides the support needed by teachers and administrators
who are charged with enforcing the policy, often in the face of aggressive parental
opposition.
Clearly, academic integrity is central to every institution's mission [and] trust-

ees sometimes may be tempted to intervene directly in individual academic
integrity cases. While some governing boards have the authority to decide
these cases, such exercise of authority can be problematic... they risk under-
mining their institution's academic integrity procedures, especially in the ab-
sence of any stated reasons justifying their decisions. In general, direct trustee
involvement in adjudicating academic integrity cases seems fraught with the
potential of doing more harm than good... .The single most important thing
trustees can do, therefore, is to raise the issue. (Cole and Kiss 27)
In its role as policy maker, the Board is responsible for determining that the
Academic Integrity Policy is fair. The Board is not responsible for implement-
ing the policy; that is the role of the superintendent and staff. Neither individual
Board members, nor the Board in its official capacity, should ever interfere with
disciplinary actions taken by school administrators and teachers.
The role of the superintendent and district!school administrators

The superintendent is charged with policy implementation and is responsible
for developing an effective Academic Integrity Policy. Teachers, students, par-
ents, and community representatives should be involved in all stages of policy
development, including publicizing and building support for the policy in the
schools and community.
An Academic Integrity Policy committee includes, at a minimum, teachers
and administrators, usually under the direction of the superintendent or principal.
Student participation adds significantly to the strength of the committee. Parents
are effective as committee members or in an advisory role; their cooperation is
crucial. The support that evolves from such community-wide ownership of the
Academic Integrity Policy is a major step toward successful implementation.
One of the most important factors for success is an administrative commitment
of full support for teachers who actively enforce the Academic Integrity Policy and a
stated expectation that all teachers will do so.
[The] administration needs to assure the faculty that they will not be put on
trial or endure a bureaucratic nightmare for simply maintaining ethical stan-
Responding to the Students 37
dards in their classroom. This means that the administration must be willing
to stand behind the faculty when the students seek to mitigate or overturn
their punishment. When the administration and faculty work together, it
sends a clear and unified message to all students that cheating and plagia-
rism will not be tolerated in any class. (Heberling, par. 18)
Unfortunately, many administrators and School Boards do not "stand behind

the faculty" when teachers prove charges of cheating or plagiarism and assign an
appropriate penalty. This sends a dreadful message: Teachers, don't try to control
dishonesty in your classrooms because we won't support you. Students, cheat and
plagiarize without fear of consequences. Parents, we won't make you angry or
create the possibility of a lawsuit.
Creating a school culture of honesty and integrity requires the commitment
of parents, School Board members, administrators, teachers, staff, parents, and
students. Strong and courageous administrative leadership creates an environ-
ment that supports teachers working with students in their classrooms to put these
changes into action.
The role of the teacher remains the crucial one

The teacher plans instruction and decides what to emphasize in the classroom.
The single most effective change a teacher can make is to focus on ethics, honesty,
and integrity in every class; students then understand without doubt that these are
important principles.
The researchers recommend the following for success in decreasing the

amount of cheating in the classroom. First, the entire staff of teachers would
need to be in agreement as to the definition and understanding of what ac-
tually constitutes cheating. Second, an agreement would need to be put in
place, preferably in the discipline code, which would outline the definition
and the consequences for those who are caught cheating Third, it is im-
portant to follow through with a character education program on the impor-
tance of honesty and integrity. This kind of effort should start as early as the
primary grades and be repeated at the start of each new school year.... Fi-
nally, the researchers found through this study and action plan that there
was a wide latitude of cheating that has become accepted in the classroom.
When the clear definition of cheating is taught, modeled and reinforced by
teachers, practiced and understood by the students, and supported by the
entire staff, the incidents of cheating will decrease. (Bopp 47^48)
Extra effort is required of teachers who fully support honesty in testing and in-
tegrity in written assignments, and who assign penalties for proven cheating and
plagiarism. They will make tests and testing procedures as cheat-proof as possible.
They will reduce plagiarism by developing written assignments designed to make

the process as important as the final paper, or product.
In return, these teachers must be able to depend on strong, unwavering support
from administrators, from Board members, and especially from parents. They also
will have the support of the many students who want and deserve honesty in their
classes.
Five COPY ME pages at the end of this chapter may stimulate your own creative
approaches in dealing with these issues. Results of the "3-Minute Survey" indicate a
need for greater emphasis on honesty and integrity in communicating with students
and parents; the survey form is in Appendix B with permission to use and adapt it.
"Focus on Academic Honesty and Integrity" reminds students of the importance
of doing their own work to the best of their ability and notifies parents that teach-
ers care about the integrity of student work. While we concentrate on the required
curriculum, we may need to rethink how we assign class work and homework, and
how we design our tests. "Whose Work Is Being Graded?" and "Help Students to
Value Homework and Complete It Honestly" can initiate useful debate on this issue.
Finally, "Simple Suggestions to Reduce Cheating" is intended to begin a discussion
that can raise faculty awareness.
The role of students

Many students do not connect the value of a grade with the value of learning
the material and completing assignments. Instead, they view testing and assign-
ments as an obstacle course to twist and turn through with the least possible work
required for the best possible grade. "Cheating is easier than studying so why
not cheat?"
Teachers and parents can help students to understand how the knowledge and
skills they are learning are important in their lives and for their future, and to
value honest mastery. This can help reduce the number of students who deliber-
ately decide to cheat or plagiarize.
Honest students will welcome and support an Academic Integrity Policy
when it is enforced fairly in all classes. They want a "level playing field" that
lets them compete with integrity. Then, when a fellow student asks to copy
homework or test answers, the reply can be a simple, "No, it's against our Aca-
demic Integrity Policy."
References
Bopp, Mary, Patricia Gleason, and Stacey Misicka. Reducing Incidents of Cheat-
ing in Adolescence. Master of Arts Action Research Project. Chicago: Saint
Xavier U., 2001. (ED 456127)
Cole, Sally, and Elizabeth Kiss. "The Delicate Task of Combating Student Cheat-
ing." Trusteeship 9.1 (2001): 24-28.
Responding to the Students 39
Heberling, Michael. "Maintaining Academic Integrity in Online Education." On-

line Journal of Distance Learning Administration 5.1 (2002). 18 Aug. 2004
www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/spring5 l/heberling51 .html
Resources
COPY ME pages:
Bill Taylor: "Academic Integrity: A Letter to My Students"
Karen Farley: "Skills for Life in the Davenport Community Schools"
High School Students' Responses to a "3-Minute Survey"
Focus on Academic Honesty and Integrity
Simple Suggestions to Help Reduce Cheating
Whose Work Is Being Graded?
Help Students to Value Homework and Complete It Honestly
See Appendix C for related information in Student Cheating and Plagiarism
in the Internet Era: A Wake-Up Call: Chapter 7, Integrity, Ethics, and Character
Education; Chapter 9, Defining Cheating and Plagiarism for Students; Chapter 11,
Reducing Cheating on Tests and Assignments.
COPY ME
Academic Integrity: A Letter to My Students
Bill Taylor
Here, at the beginning of the semester, I want to say something to you about aca-
demic integrity. Integrity is an essential part of any true educational experience,
integrity on my part as a teacher and integrity on your part as a student. What does
that involve for each of us in this class? Academic integrity means that we must
consider our honor as we complete the exams and written assignments required
for this class.
With regard to exams, the principles of academic integrity require that I:

• do my best during class time to prepare you for the exam
• be available to work with you individually if you need help to prepare for
the exam
• develop exam questions that will be a meaningful test not only of the
course content, but also of your ability to express and defend intelligent
judgments about that content
• carefully monitor the exam so that honest students will not be disadvan-
taged by other students who might choose to cheat if given the opportu-
nity
• give due and careful consideration to your answers when evaluating
them and assigning a grade
With regard to exams, the principles of academic integrity require you to:
• come to class having done your best to prepare for the exam, including
seeking my help if you need it
• make full use of the time available to write the best answers you can
• accept your limitations and not try to get around them by using cheat
sheets, copying, or seeking help from another student
• not give help to other students, or make it easy for them to copy from
you
With regard to written assignments, the principles of academic integrity

require that I:
• devise meaningful assignments that grow out of and further the work
done in the classroom
• provide you with a clear description of that assignment so that you know
what is expected of you and what I'll be looking for when I grade it
• give due and careful consideration to your paper when evaluating it and
assigning a grade
• confront you if I suspect that you have plagiarized or in other ways not
handed in work that is entirely your own
40
With regard to written assignments, the principles of academic integrity
require you to:
• start your research and writing early enough to ensure that you have the
time you need to do your best work
• hand in a paper that you yourself have done specifically for this class and
not copied from someone else, recycled from another class, copied from
books or other print sources, or downloaded from the Internet
• not be satisfied with a paper that is less than your own best work
• seek only appropriate help from others (such as proof-reading, or dis-
cussing your ideas with someone else to gain clarity in your thinking)
• give full and proper credit to your sources
A challenge
I will do my best to live up to my responsibilities. If you feel I've failed to do so, you
have every right to call me on it. If you do, I have a responsibility to give you respectful
consideration. If you feel that I do not do these things, you have the right (and I would
say the responsibility) to bring this to the attention of a school administrator.
At the same time, I have arightto expect you to live up to your responsibilities. If I
think you're not doing so, I consider it a matter of academic integrity to call you on it.
Indeed, in certain circumstances, such as cheating or plagiarism, I may be re-
quired to charge you with a violation of the school's Academic Integrity Policy.
Our school is every bit as committed to academic integrity as I am.
Personal integrity is not a quality we're born to naturally. It's a quality of char-
acter we need to nurture, and this requires practice in both meanings of that word
(as in practice on the piano and practice a profession). We can only be a person of
integrity if we practice it every day.
That is why it is essential for all of us in this class to practice academic in-
tegrity, in both senses of the word practice. For practice today will lay a solid
foundation for practice tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that,
so that through daily practice integrity will come to be woven throughout the
fabric of our lives, and thus through at least a part of the fabric of society.
It also is important that your parents support and encourage you in your
resolve to practice academic integrity. Your responsibility is to read this letter
with your parents and discuss it together. Be sure you understand the value your
parents place on academic integrity. They trust you to do your best and will
value the grades you earn through your own honest efforts.
[Bill Taylor is Emeritus Professor of Political Science at Oakton Community College in Des
Plaines, IL. This letter grows out of, and is based upon, ideas contained in the first draft of
"The Fundamental Values of Academic Integrity," a document that was developed by, and is
available from, the Center for Academic Integrity at www.academicintegrity.org.]
41
COPY ME
Skills for Life in the Davenport Community Schools
Karen Farley
The Skills for Life program was developed with the input of administrators, teach-
ers, parents, and area employers. Many of the employers saw our students as
being only marginally prepared for job success; the problem was not just literacy
or basic math skills, but a lack of disciplined work habits. This program was cre-
ated for our students to help ensure a productive learning environment.
Starting at the elementary level

• Caring—to feel and show concern for others
• Common sense—to use good judgment
• Effort—to do one's best
• Initiative—to do something, not necessarily for reward, but because it
needs to be done
• Perseverance—to keep at something until one succeeds
• Responsibility—to take action when needed and be accountable for
one's actions
• Teamwork—to work together to achieve a goal for the benefit of all con-
cerned
Added at the intermediate school level

• Curiosity—to demonstrate a desire to investigate and seek understand-
ing of one's world
• Flexibility—to be willing to alter plans when necessary
• Friendship—to make and keep a friend through mutual trust and caring
• Integrity—to act according to a sense of what is right and wrong
• Organization—to plan, arrange, and implement in an orderly way so
things are ready to use
• Patience—to wait calmly for someone or something
• Problem solving—to create solutions in difficult situations and everyday
problems
• Sense of humor—to laugh and be playful without harming others
Added at the high school level

• Courage—to act according to one's beliefs despite fear of adverse conse-
quences
• Pride—to gain satisfaction from doing one's personal best
• Resourcefulness—to respond to challenges and opportunities in innova-
tive and creative ways
The teaching of these skills is woven throughout all school activities—educa-
tional and social. "Target talk" reinforces students' learning of the Skills for Life.
42
For instance, a teacher might say, "Jose, you used the skill of caring when you
helped Margaret find her books." Skills are discussed as they appear in stories
read by the students. Even the evening news demonstrates such skills—or lack of
them—in action. The students take pride in discussing how Skills for Life affect
events in their lives.
Initial promotion of the Skills for Life program included poster sets of the skills
for classroom use, screen savers for teachers, billboards, and a newspaper tabloid
(paid for with grant dollars). Teachers and other staff attended in-service meetings
on the curriculum, and teaching materials were developed.
What is the reaction of parents to the Skills for Life program? Ken Krumwiede,
principal at Truman Elementary, reports, "Some parents were skeptical atfirst.But as
they see their children blossom and excel, they share our enthusiasm and become our
strongest supporters. The momentum is growing."
Cindy Winckler, Curriculum and Instruction Facilitator, believes the program
does work for students. "The educational and social challenges our high school
students face have changed dramatically during the past generation. As the Skills
for Life program expands into Davenport's high schools this year, the program will
help provide an important focus for students progressing toward graduation. These
are definitely skills for a lifetime."
District: Davenport Community Schools

City, State: Davenport, Iowa
Principal: Norbert Schuerman, Ph.D.
Number of schools: 31
Enrollment: 16,377
Web site: www.davenportschools.org
[Additional information about the Skills for Life program in the Davenport Community
Schools is online at www.davenportschools.org/curriculum/skillsforlife.asp.]
43
COPY ME
High School Students' Responses to a "3-Minute Survey"
Students coming into the high school library during one day in May, 2004, were
asked to complete this survey and drop it into a box on the circulation desk. These
results are from the 176 surveys received that day. Survey response options are
boldface and the number of students who selected each response is in parenthesis.
How many of YOUR teachers have discussed cheating on tests and assignments
in one or more of your classes this year?
1(19) 2(23) 3(32) 4(31) 5(36) 6(26) none (8)
How many of YOUR teachers have discussed plagiarism in one or more of your
classes this year?
1(41) 2(42) 3(22) 4(11) 5(20) 6(12) none (20)
Have your parents talked with you about why you shouldn't cheat at school?
yes, often (9) yes, a few times (49) not this school year (117)
If you copied a paper or part of a paper from the Internet, did your parents know
about it?
yes, they knew and said it's OK (11)
yes, they knew and said it's not OK (11)
What would they say about it?
it's OK (21) don't do it (118)
Do you know what your Student Handbook says about cheating and plagiarism?
yes, I've read it (84) no idea, never read it (92)
Do your parents know what the handbook says?
yes (26) no (75) I don't know (75)
[Survey forms are in Appendix B]
Reprinted with permission of the authors: Guiding Students from Cheating and Plag
tion, discussion groups, workshops, conferences, or newsletters. This material m
44
COPY ME
Focus on Academic Honesty and Integrity
Consistent use of these statements emphasizes the importance placed on academic

integrity and honesty by the individual teacher, the school, and the district.
Put this statement at the top of the first page of every test:
All electronic devices, except any calculators we provide for your use, are
banned from this classroom during testing. Any electronic device that is
visible, whether being used or not, will be confiscated and the test will be
scored as a zero. Your parent or guardian will have to meet with me to have
the electronic device returned. Advice? Keep cellphones and all other elec-
tronic devices turned off and in your backpack, purse, or otherwise out of
sight during testing.
Put this statement at the end of every test and ask students to sign it:
/ have neither given nor received assistance on this test.
Put this statement on every homework assignment and ask students to sign it, and
ask a parent or guardian to sign it when appropriate:
/ have neither given nor received unpermitted assistance on this assign-
ment.
Send a statement home at the beginning of each school year, and in the packet for
each new student enrolled during the year, with a form for every student and par-
ent to sign acknowledging that they have read the Academic Integrity Policy. The
statement below is adapted from the Washington County Public Schools (Mary-
land) statement:
/ have read and promise to uphold the (School/District) standards for Aca-
demic Integrity. I hold the qualities of honesty and integrity in the highest
regard and will not violate them or support those who do.
Student Parent Date
Reprinted with permission of the authors'. Guiding Students from Cheating and Plagia-
placed on a web site or distributed in any digital format. This statement must appear in its
45
COPY ME
Simple Suggestions to Help Reduce Cheating
Cheating in classes is a way to survive in school; sometimes you are forced

to cheat out ofpure pressure. But it is not really cheating any more because
it now is a way to survive, its helping the little guy out which could be seen
as a noble cause to some. As for me, I do what it takes to get by and to keep
on top, because of the fact that most core class teachers believe that they are
the only ones to give us an hour or more of homework and that we have no
personal life so we have hours to finish it. This is just not true for almost all
students and they are overloaded with homework so they turn to cheating as
their only way out. 12th grade boy
Coordinate assessments to reduce pressures that may lead to cheating

The faculty should coordinate assessments as carefully as sporting events and
assemblies are scheduled. This would avoid the major stress created for a student
who has one or two major tests and a major paper all due on the same day. Each
academic department could designate one day of the week to give their major tests
and one week each month when their major written assignments are due. Pressure
is a major reason why students cheat. A reasonable schedule for tests and written
assignment due dates reduces these pressures.
Keep these warnings in mind

If you rip up the test paper and assign a grade of zero, the paper won't be available
as proof of cheating if the student or parent challenges you. It is better to file the
paper with a written account of the incident.
Any parent or student can purchase a teacher's edition of the textbook with unit
tests and answer keys for both homework and tests. These also may be available
online. Always assume your students have access to the teacher's edition, work-
book, and publisher's testing material.
Never give your computer password to a student. Even a trusted student aide
can disappoint you. Or, if a hacker breaks into your gradebook program or tests,
the student aide may be blamed unfairly.
Reprinted with permission of the authors: Guiding Students from Cheating and Pla
tion, discussion groups, workshops, conferences, or newsletters. This material mu
46
COPY ME
Whose Work Is Being Graded?
The tests, reports, term papers, projects, homework, or other student work that we
grade must be the students' own work, honestly completed under the conditions
stated by the teacher. Our assessments then reflect students' true academic ability
rather than their skill in cheating and plagiarizing. It is important that we
• design and administer tests that make cheating more difficult
• monitor and grade the research process as well as the research product to
make plagiarism more difficult
• structure science fair projects and other "do-it-at-home" projects to re-
flect the student's independent work
• design science experiments to make it more difficult to create fake data
or to copy data and procedures from another student
• avoid "busywork" homework assignments that encourage copying
Students are less likely to copy or cheat if they perceive assessment as relevant.
Making cheating more difficult

• Base grades on essay tests, research papers, individual class presenta-
tions, and the like.
• Emphasize critical thinking skills rather than rote memory of a great many
facts.
• Give many small tests rather than one major test at the end of the unit.
• Give open-note tests with only one note card, the test, and a pencil or pen
allowed on students' desks during the test. Stress that preparing a good note
card is an excellent way to learn the material. Collect note cards with the test
papers.
• Distribute five to ten short essay questions a few days before a test. On
test day, one student draws a number to determine the one question to
be answered; it may be different for each period.
• For short-answer, multiple-choice tests, hand out 5, 10, 20 or more ques-
tions the day before the test. Tell students which ones to answer on the
day of the test. Change questions each period, sometimes repeating a
question and sometimes not.
• Add one or more short essay questions to a multiple-choice test and check
accuracy of facts in essay answers against answers on the rest of the test.
• Avoid take-home tests. Honest students will complete the test as in-
structed, while classmates who cheat by asking for help from parents,
siblings, tutors, or friends will unfairly receive a better grade.
Al
COPY ME
Help Students to Value Homework and Complete It Honestly
Well-designed homework assignments help students to prepare for the next day's
class work, verify that they understand new concepts or skills presented, and pro-
vide practice with these concepts. Students should see the connection between
homework and class work. Provide clear and specific answers to these questions:
• What is the teacher's goal in assigning homework?
• What amount and kind of help from parents is acceptable?
• Is collaboration with other students allowed or forbidden?
• Will homework be graded and returned or is it kept in the teacher's file?
• Is there time in class to explain the problems or issues?
• Is the teacher available before or after school to help the student?
• What should the parent do if a student complains the teacher never
checks and never returns homework?
A school-sponsored homework Web site lets parents and students check to see
what homework has been assigned. Teachers can post expectations for how stu-
dents should complete the homework: alone, with some specified degree of parent
help, with a friend, in collaboration with peers, and so on.
Review each day's homework in class to capture "teachable moments." Many
students benefit from a review that checks quickly for problems and misunder-
standings.
Permit collaboration on homework and other assignments

Two reasons support allowing students to do homework collaboratively: (1) stu-
dents who work with an entire group solving each problem are helping to teach
each other, and (2) being told to "do it alone" punishes the honest student who
works hard to complete the assignment, only to receive the same credit as students
who divided the work and copied each other's answers. A better approach is to
permit collaboration that probably cannot be stopped and that may have some
positive benefits. Then test for mastery to identify students who copied the home-
work without learning from it.
Check for honesty with a minimum of grading time

Each time homework is handed in, give a one-question test or have some other in-
class activity that would be difficult to do well unless the student had completed
the homework. Let students use their homework paper to answer the question but
all books remain closed. Collect the test paper with the homework. The test or
activity should be varied for each class period.
48
CHAPTER FOUR
Parents' Role in Developing

Student Honesty and Integrity
We need parents with good moral values who will consider a teacher's point
of view before automatically believing their kid is right—teachers have a
reason for disciplining a kid, but parents believe the teacher is unfair. They
should support the teachers. 10th grade boy
A special word to parents. If you 're a parent, don yt wait for the educational
system to adopt character-education programs or serious honor codes.
Make a commitment to integrity in your own home. Talk to your kids about
why they should play by the rules—and honestly challenge rules they think
are wrong. Teach them how to work through the tough ethical dilemmas
in life. Create an environment where money and status do not loom in the
children Js lives as the greatest good. (Callahan 295)
This chapter is written for you, a concerned parent who wants to keep ethical issues,
including academic cheating and plagiarism, "front and center" in your child's life.
You are the primary role model for your child's values.
Yet only 23 of the 906 student comments from the surveys in Chapter 2 refer
to parents. There were 13 students who listed parental concerns as a reason "why I
don't cheat" and 10 students who listed parental demands for good grades as a reason
"why I cheat." Students of parents who say "don't cheat" think their parents would
be disappointed or might punish them for cheating. When less than three percent of
students in grades 7-12 across five states make any mention of parental influence, it
is time to look at the role of parents in developing student honesty and integrity.
Developing strong concepts of right and wrong

You are teaching right from wrong as you help your child process the often
mixed messages received from television and radio, advertisers, teen magazines,
newspapers, and—perhaps most important—from friends and peers. You do this

in many ways.
• Clarify your expectations for your child's moral behavior.

• Help your child to develop a personal code of ethics.
• Discuss moral issues at dinner, in the car, as part of the family dialog.
• Discuss the day's news as related to moral behavior—why did the per-
son act the way he/she did? What impact did those actions have on the
person, on people who loved them, or on society? What could the person
have done better?
• Keep lines of communication open with your child, teachers, and the
school staff.
• Be sure your child understands the rules at school and the penalties for
breaking them.
• Read and discuss the school's Academic Integrity Policy together.
• If your school does not have an Academic Integrity Policy, form a com-
mittee to develop one.
• Be realistic about your expectations for your child based on her or his
abilities and watch for signs of stress.
• Stress that honesty is more important than getting an "A" by cheating.
• Encourage your child to "come clean" and take the consequences rather
than lie.
By helping to clarify moral and ethical issues for your child you are laying the
foundation for a lifetime code of honesty and integrity.
Helping with time management skills

Help your child learn to manage the time needed to complete assignments
with integrity and to the best of her ability. This means limiting the time spent on
television, video games, surfing online, or other more pleasurable activities while
schoolwork is ignored.
It is the student's job to get an education. Part-time jobs during the school
year can often interfere with schoolwork. Working students say they cheat and
plagiarize because they don't have the time, or are just too tired, to study for a
test or to complete assignments well. Limiting the number of hours your child
works each week is your responsibility.
Dealing with plagiarism

Your child has easy access to the Internet's seemingly endless variety of online
Web sites with thousands of term papers and reports on every subject. This access
is an open invitation to plagiarism. Students during the 70s and 80s had to rely on
Parents' Role in Developing Student Honesty and Integrity 51
books, encyclopedias, newspapers, magazines, and pamphlets to gather research

material. Those who didn't want to write the paper had to find a friend to write it,
or perhaps a parent or older sibling.
Today, a child who spends hours "writing" a book report or term paper may be
plagiarizing from the Internet. Some cut and paste "research information" from a
magazine article found in a library online database. Others rework a paper from a
paper mill into a more age-appropriate version to fool the teacher. More sophis-
ticated, or desperate, students send the parameters for the paper to a paper mill,
provide a credit card, and receive a completed paper ready to be downloaded,
printed, and turned in.
Your responsibility is to make sure your child completes the research and
writes the paper independently. The best way to do this is to keep informed about
written assignments and their due dates, then follow the process from initial plan-
ning and research to the finished paper. You may want to explore some of the Web
sites listed in the COPY ME pages or ask your school to organize a back-to-school
workshop about the Internet and today's research techniques (see "A 'Research
Night Out' for Parents" COPY ME page in Chapter 9).
Being honest in the amount of help you give

You are cheating when you "help" by doing too much of your child's work for
a class project or written assignment. This gives a teacher an inaccurate basis for
assessment and teaches your child that cheating and plagiarism are acceptable.
Kate Stone Lombardi recalls a display of students' reports in her son's fourth-
grade classroom:
My son is not much of an artist, but there next to his report on the Rev. Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. was a game attempt at depicting the civil rights hero. It
was accompanied by a straightforward, chronological roundup of Dr. King's
life. It wouldn't knock your socks off, but for a 9-year-old, it was O.K. His
project was hanging next to one on Amelia Earhart, executed by an evident
artistic prodigy who also had incredible literary talent The paper—also
available as a PowerPoint presentation—speculated on Earhart's early im-
pact on the feminist movement and her possible psychological motivations
for flying. O.K., fine. Who cares if someone got a little too much help in el-
ementary school? [But] even in middle and high school, many parents haven't
stopped.... One mother told me she was glad to do research and other "cleri-
cal work" for her child, because her daughter was far too busy with other
enriching activities to do it herself. (Lombardi, par. 6-9)
Ask that the original instructions sent home with any project state clearly the
degree and kind of help from parents or fellow students that is permissible. It is
your responsibility to honor these instructions.
Suggest that your teacher or school create a pledge or statement for you and
your child to sign verifying that the project has been completed by your child, not
by you. Some teachers may require that each student write a reflection piece on
"how I did this project" in addition to returning the signed pledge.
COPY ME pages as discussion starters

Some of the articles that follow speak directly to students, others to parents. All
are formatted as COPY ME pages.
You may find the articles helpful in discussing these issues with your own chil-
dren. Cheating and plagiarism are serious problems in our schools. You address
these problems in positive ways when you model good values for your child.
References
Callahan, David. The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong
to Get Ahead. New York: Harcourt, 2004.
Lombardi, Kate Stone. "Haunted by Ghost-Written Homework." The New York
Times, 2 Feb. 2003. ProQuest. Los Alamitos High School Lib., Los Alamitos,
CA. 5 Nov. 2004 proquest.umi.com.
Resources
COPY ME pages:
Elaine K. McEwan: '"I Didn't Do It'—Dealing with Dishonesty"
Father Val J. Peter: "Nobody Likes a Cheat"
Michael Josephson: "Helping Our Children Learn to Make Good Choices"
Carolyn Jabs: "Preventing Plagiarism"
Elaine K. McEwan: "'The Dog Ate It' — Conquering Homework Hassles"
See Appendix C for related information in Student Cheating and Plagiarism
in the Internet Era: A Wake-Up Call: Chapter 7, Parents: Vigilant, Informed, In-
volved.
COPY ME
"I Didn't Do It"-Dealing with Dishonesty
Elaine K. McEwan
What should I do if my child is cheating?

If you have discovered that your child is cheating, first think about possible rea-
sons. Reasons are not excuses—to excuse the behavior would be a mistake. But
you do need to determine why the cheating happened so you can take steps to
make sure it doesn't happen again. Ask yourself the following questions:
• Am I unrealistic in my expectations or demands of my child? Do I con-
tinually emphasize the importance of winning or having top grades?
• Are my expectations far greater than my child could be expected to
achieve, for example, expecting someone who isn't physically coordi-
nated to earn a place in the starting lineup or expecting someone with
average ability to win a scholarship to Harvard?
• Is my discipline so harsh and punitive that it engenders extreme fear in my
children so that they cheat rather than face the consequences of failure?
Why did my child cheat?

Here are some of the main reasons children cheat and what you can do about
them.
Competition and pressure. We want our kids to be number one—in academics, in
sports, and in life. This intense pressure to be at the top of the heap engenders a "win
at any cost" mentality that is very dangerous... unreasonably high expectations can
push children to be dishonest in the achievement of their goals. If, after talking with
your child's teacher, you determine that competition and pressure might be the rea-
sons for cheating, lighten up. Major on praise and encouragement, rather than pres-
sure. Avoid making comparisons between your child and siblings or friends with
regard to report cards, sports achievements, or other accomplishments.
Feelings of inadequacy and unpreparedness. I've empathized with many a stu-
dent whose parents expected As when they were only capable of delivering Cs.
Their own feelings of inadequacy and need for parental affirmation pushed them
over the line Solicit help from your child's teacher if she needs extra help in
the classroom.
To be numero uno. This is the child who is naturally aggressive and needs to
be first at everything (especially games and sports). He has an inordinate need to
win, and if it takes cheating, he may even do that... .The impulsive, challenging
child may need special help in this area.
Copy cat. Sometimes a younger child may see an older or more manipulative
child cheat and win. She mistakenly assumes that this is the way "the game is
played," and she lacks the maturity to realize the ultimate problems that cheating
involves. Teach this child that cheating is wrong, and help her to understand that
just because someone else does it, that doesn't make it right.
53
Laissezfaire. Some parents are loath to come down too hard on their children,
so they forgive a little "harmless fudging." They may even encourage it by doing
homework for a child. Children are quick learners and will get the impression
that a parent doesn't really care if they cheat. Before you know it, habits will be
formed. Cheating is not a problem that will disappear with age. It will only grow
worse. Don't ever let a child get away with cheating. If you do, he will come to
believe that nobody cares.
Egocentricity. This is a younger version of "numero uno." The young child
firmly believes that he is the center o the universe and demands to be first and best,
and to win at everything. In a mistaken attempt to make a child feel good, parents
often unwittingly create a monster—a child who believes he can have what he
wants, no matter what the cost. Deal with this problem as you would deal with the
"copy cat" by teaching firmly and clearly that cheating is not allowed.
These are the reasons that kids cheat. If you can step back from the emotionally
charged reaction you had when you first discovered that your little angel's halo
was a mite tarnished, you'll probably be able to make some adjustments, fine-tune
your parenting, and move into a proactive program to deal with the problem.
[Reprinted with permission from "IDidn't Do If—Dealing with Dishonesty, by Elaine K.

McEwan (Shaw, 1996). Elaine McEwan is an educational consultant and a well-known
author, lecturer, and workshop leader for parents, teachers, and administrators. For more
information, visit her Web site at www.elainemcewan.com.]
54
COPY ME
Nobody Likes a Cheat
Father Val J. Peter
In movie Westerns, a cowboy who cheats at cards is usually shot right then and
there. The sheriff doesn't intervene. That's frontier justice.
Nobody likes a cheat. Yet we live in a society known for getting around the
rules. We all know what cheating is:
• not following the rules
• using other people's homework in school
• copying answers during tests
• cheating at cards
• cheating at games
• cheating at sports events
• just plain dishonesty
How do we teach our children not to cheat? How do we teach them honesty?
Teaching honesty
Don't let your children learn cheating from you.
It is pretty obvious that if you cheat (on your expense account, your golf score,
your spouse), your children will grow up to be cheats. The contrary is also true.
If you don't cheat and make every effort to teach your children that cheating is
wrong, your children will grow up to be honest people.
I had a friend who cheated at everything. My parents' heated and repeated
expressions of disapproval heightened within me my awareness of the importance
of being honest. You can watch out for parenting strategies that make cheating
attractive to your children.
Avoid unreasonable expectations about your children's grades in school. Why?
Because unreasonable expectations can create conditions that make cheating an
acceptable behavior to your child. Your child might think, "I'd rather get a good
grade by cheating than be honest, get a poor grade, and have to face the wrath of
my parents." Think of the pressure you put on your children via this parenting
strategy:
• "Everyone in this family goes to Harvard."
• "I won't accept a stupid child."
Of course, you don't want your children to be lazy. The remedy for laziness
is a series of positive and negative motivations served up with warmth and af-
fection and stick-to-itiveness. If your child is lazy in school, get involved in his
schoolwork. Meet with teachers who can help give you a realistic assessment of
your child's potential. Use sports as an example. Most parents who attend their
children's sporting events realize their children are not future NBA or NFL play-
ers. These are realistic expectations. They need to prevail in academics as well.
55
When your child cheats
What to do when your child is caught cheating on a test:
• The first thing that you need to do is to get the facts: "Is this the first
event?" "Has it been going on for some time?" "Was it a prank?" "Was
it serious?" "Was it peer pressure?"
• In addition to getting the facts, it is important to control your own emo-
tions. There is a sizable difference between a disappointment and a disas-
ter. Parents need to recognize that and communicate it to their children.
It is a disappointment that your child was cheating on a test, but it is not
the end of the world.
• Third, in addition to getting the facts and controlling your own emotions,
it is important to find out what the pressures are on your child to cheat.
• Then help reduce those pressures.
Using these four simple steps usually produces an abundance of insights as to
how to handle the situation. Usually your child will feel very embarrassed and
ashamed. That is a great time to show a parent's love, especially if your child has
"come to his senses." This presents you with an opportunity to give your child a
big hug and not hold a grudge. "To err is human. To forgive is divine."
[Adapted with permission from Dealing With Your Kids' 7 Biggest Troubles, by Father Val
J. Peter. Father Val J. Peter, Executive Director, Girls & Boys Town. Boys Town, NE: Boys
Town Press, 2000.]
56
COPY ME
Helping Our Children Learn to Make Good Choices
Michael Josephson
In Florida two young men, eager to win the admiration of fraternity brothers,
removed a stop sign and brought it back as a trophy. In Tennessee, a couple of
teenagers were at a party in a high-rise apartment and one dared the other to slide
down the trash shoot in the hall. In Colorado, an Air Force Academy cadet with
a promising future played strip poker with a female classmate and, ignoring her
protests, forced her to have sex.
The Florida boys were convicted of manslaughter after a fatal accident occurred
at the intersection without the stop sign. The Tennessee boy who slid down the trash
shoot was killed by an automatic trash compactor, and his friend is left with guilt and
grief. The cadet's military career was destroyed and he may face criminal charges.
What makes these stories all the more tragic is that we're not talking about bad
kids; we're talking about fundamentally decent kids who made really bad choices.
That's the recurring nightmare of caring parents. Children seriously damaging them-
selves physically or emotionally by unwise decisions—engaging in reckless conduct
to impress friends, endangering themselves through drugs, alcohol or imprudent sex,
or getting involved with irresponsible, manipulative, cruel or selfish people.
Sure we want our kids to be successful, good-looking, and clever, but it's much
more important that they make good choices. This requires more than cultivated
instinct. It requires an ability and willingness to act rationally rather than impul-
sively and to evaluate situations and anticipate potential consequences.
Every good decision starts with a "stop"

Many of the choices we make can have a serious and lasting impact on our lives.
What's more, most of our really bad decisions—the ones that mess up our lives —
were made impulsively or without sufficient reflection.
Thus, the wisdom of the oldest advice in the world: "Think ahead." The maxim
telling us to count to three when we're angry and to ten when we're very angry is
designed to prevent foolish and impulsive behavior. But anger is just one obstacle
to good choices. Others are fatigue, frustration, impatience and ignorance.
We can improve our lives immeasurably if we can get in the habit of self-
consciously stopping the momentum of thoughtless behavior. We must force our-
selves to reflect on what we are about to do. Just as we teach our children to look
both ways before they cross the street, we can and should instill the habit of look-
ing ahead in making decisions.
So each good decision starts with a stop. We must stop to sort out facts from
rumors, to evaluate the evidence and devise alternatives so we can choose the
most effective and ethical course of action. Stopping to think before we act also
allows us to muster our moral willpower to overcome temptations.
The "Stop" is a break in the action that allows us to ask ourselves a few crucial
questions that could set us on a better road: "Wait, what do I really want to accom-
57
plish here?" "How will my decision affect others?" "What are my alternatives?"
"What could go wrong?"
Knowing when a decision is important

Abby doesn't know what she wants to wear today but she has to choose quickly
or she'll be late for school. Ben is afraid of losing his athletic eligibility and
is thinking of cheating on an exam. Cassie is urged by a friend to try the drug
"ecstasy." Dirk's teammates want him to join in the taunting of a nerd. Ellie is
thinking about lying to her mom so she can go to a party. Federico is dared by
his buddies to take advantage of a drunken girl. Gwen is thinking about having
sex so she won't lose her boyfriend.
Life is full of choices. Many don't require serious forethought because they're
not important—like Abby's choice about her clothes. In such cases, there may be
no bad decision and, in any event, the cost of error is minor. Thus, it's okay to rely
on impulses and preferences.
But many everyday decisions have potentially momentous consequences, in-
cluding choices about whether to cheat, experiment with drugs, lie to a parent or
engage in sexual conduct. Even choices about whether to study for a test, cut school,
lie to avoid an unpleasant consequence, talk back to a teacher or quit a job must be
treated as important because a wrong choice can have a serious and lasting impact.
Generally, the greater the potential consequences, the more need there is for
careful decision making. When we respond to impulse without reflection we stand
a good chance of making a bad decision. Therefore, a first step in wise decision
making is to know when to be especially careful.
Decisions are important when: (1) serious physical or emotional injury may
result, (2) an important relationship can be damaged, (3) one's reputation or cred-
ibility can be seriously undermined, and (4) where the decision could endanger
important long-term goals. So what do you do when the stakes are high? Be care-
ful. Don't gamble. Think long-term.
If we take control, we have control

It's often said that our choices reveal our character, but it's also true that our
choices shape our character. Thus, the more aware we become of the choices we
make every single day—choices about our attitudes, our words, our actions, and
our reactions—the more power we have over our own destiny.
According to Senator Bob Bennett of Utah, a big supporter of CHARACTER
COUNTS!, "Your life is the sum result of all the choices you make, both con-
sciously and unconsciously. If you can control the process of choosing, you can
take control of all aspects of your life. You can find the freedom that comes from
being in charge of yourself."
It's true. When we accept moral responsibility for our choices we take charge
of our lives. Yet sometimes the power to choose is not self-evident, especially to
teenagers who are struggling to deal with hormone-intensified impulses accom-
panying powerful emotions like excitement, desire, frustration, and anger. These
58
emotions can be so strong that they create moods and urges that seem beyond
control and, as a result, no attempt is made to control them.
At the root of good decision making is self-control and knowledge that no mat-
ter how difficult or confusing the situation, we always have the power to choose
what we think, say, and do, even when we're under tremendous pressure and even
when we don't like our options. Like a ship without a captain to steer it, when we
hide behind our self-serving illusion of helplessness—"you made me mad," "you
left me no choice," "I couldn't help myself'—our lives move in aimless and ran-
dom directions and sometimes run aground. If we take control, we have control.
Seven rules of good choices

1. Because our choices can set in motion events that affect people and alter
the future for ourselves and for others in serious and lasting ways, we are
morally responsible for the consequences of our choices.
2. Though it can be difficult to overcome impulses and resist temptations,
we always have the power to choose what we say (our words), what we
do (our actions), and what we think (our attitudes).
3. Even choices made below the level of consciousness are still choices;
even when we don't like any of our alternatives, we have a choice.
4. Choosing not to choose is a choice; choosing not to act is a choice.
5. We should be especially careful to avoid making bad decisions when
we are: (a) under time pressure, (b) fatigued, (c) frustrated, (d) we have
insufficient knowledge of facts and risks, or (e) we're under the influence
of strong emotions such as love, lust, anger, fear, frustration, depression,
grief, anxiety, resentment, jealousy, guilt, or loneliness.
6. Our choices are especially important when they can result in serious
physical or emotional harm, damage important relationships, injure rep-
utations, damage credibility, or interfere with the achievement of impor-
tant long-term goals.
7. Good choices are both ethical—they honor core moral values such as
trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and good citi-
zenship—AND they are effective—they accomplish or move toward the
decision maker's most important goals.
[Based on Michael Josephson's radio addresses from the week of March 17-21, 2003.
Reprinted with permission from the Josephson Institute of Ethics. An archive of radio
59
COPY ME
Preventing Plagiarism
Carolyn Jabs
When our kids go back to school, we must think about desk supplies, new shoes,
bus schedules, and plagiarism. Plagiarism? Yes. The Internet has made it so easy
for students to "borrow" the work of others that this particular form of cheating is
showing up as early as elementary school.
Many school districts are initiating programs to help students understand pla-
giarism and policies to punish those who cheat. As parents, we also have an im-
portant role to play. First, take plagiarism seriously. We knew it was wrong to
copy word for word from the encyclopedia when we were in school. Lifting words
from an Internet site is just as lazy. We'd be appalled if a child hired another kid to
write his papers. Buying a paper from a website like researchpaper.com is every
bit as reprehensible. Keep in mind that kids who plagiarize put honest students at
a disadvantage. More important, stealing the words of others makes it less likely
that kids will learn to think and write for themselves.
The best way to steer our children away from plagiarism is to talk early and
often about why education is valuable. It's important for our children to under-
stand that the goal of going to school isn't simply to finish assignments as fast
as possible but to understand the ideas and master the skills behind them. If kids
learn early to take pride in doing their own best work, they're less likely to suc-
cumb to the temptation of plagiarism. Here are other steps we parents can take:
• Check for a plagiarism policy when you look at the school's handbook at
the beginning of the year. If there isn't one, talk to school administrators.
Students who struggle honestly to do their own work should be protected
from students who cheat.
• Talk to your child about stealing. Even little children understand they
can't simply take what they want from a store. As your kids get older,
explain that taking words someone else has written is just as wrong.
• When your child is assigned a report, ask how she's expected to handle
source materials. Even young children should create a short bibliography
showing what books and Internet sites they consulted. Older children
should have detailed information about using quotes and creating foot-
notes for Internet sites as well as books. If your child isn't clear about
what she's supposed to do, ask the teacher for clarification.
• Help your child manage time especially when there's a big writing proj-
ect. Often kids copy other people's work because they get behind and
can't see any other way to get the assignment finished in time.
• Read what your child writes. If you're used to reading her work, you'll
recognize her natural style and be able to identify vocabulary that sounds
too advanced and passages that just don't sound like her. Ask your child
60
to share her research materials with you and encourage her to show you
early drafts.
• After your child has done his research, encourage him to close all the
books and Web sites and tell you, in his own words, what he has learned.
Summarizing the important points from memory makes it more likely
that he will use his own words when he starts writing.
• Acknowledge that writing is hard. When you go over your child's home-
work, be gentle about pointing out errors in logic or grammar. Praise
your child for doing his or her own work. Many kids cheat because they
feel that they can't possibly live up to the standards of the adults around
them. Make it clear that you value the effort as well as the results.
In the age of the Internet, kids need, more than ever, to be able to do careful
research and reflect on what they've learned. They must be able to generate new
ideas and express them effectively. Plagiarism undermines all these skills. If we
expect our kids to know the difference between right and wrong, we have to start
early so they will value the Internet as a resource instead of using it as the latest
way to cheat themselves out of a genuine education.
[Reprinted with permission of the author. Carolyn Jabs writes "Growing Up Online," a
nationally syndicated column that helps parents guide children as they use the Internet. She
is a former Contributing Editor for Family PC and is mother to three computer savvy kids.
Visit her online at www.carolynjabs.com]
61
COPY ME
"The Dog Ate It"—Conquering

Homework Hassles
Elaine K. McEwan
Establish homework routines and be available to help

Even if your child's kindergarten teacher does not assign homework, establish
a routine of spending time each day on a learning activity, for example, reading
aloud, playing a word game, or drawing a picture about the school day. When
formal homework is assigned, place a priority on completing school assignments.
They should come before any extracurricular activities.
Habits established early in your child's school career will last a lifetime.
Your role in helping your child become independent and responsible with regard
to homework is that of a consultant. You should not be doing the homework for
your child But being available to answer questions, proofread a paper, quiz
on spelling words or multiplication facts, listen to a child read aloud, and teach-
ing him how to organize the material for a test are perfectly acceptable examples
of how you can help.
If you rush to the rescue at the least provocation, you're setting your child up
for dependency and learned helplessness. Don't rush to the rescue The opera-
tive words are mastery, achievement, and independence Here are some reason-
able expectations for your homework involvement at each grade level:
Kindergarten through third grade

• Check each day to make sure your child has a homework assignment.
• Tell your child when Daily Homework Time begins.
• Check to see that your child has all the necessary materials.
• Ask your child to tell you what the homework assignment is.
• If needed, read the directions together with your child. Make sure your
child understands what is expected.
• If needed, get your child started by working on the first problem or ques-
tion together.
• Praise your child's efforts.
Grades four through six

• Check to see that your child is doing homework at the proper time.
• Suggest that your child call a friend to get help, if needed.
• Give your child help only after he has been really trying on his own.
• Utilize study skills to help your child work independently.
• Praise your child's efforts.
62
Grades seven through twelve
• Other than occasional exceptions, your child should be working inde-
pendently.
• If he or she is having a great deal of trouble doing so, you must back up
and follow the suggestions given for younger students.
• The key is to start off with considerable involvement, then to reduce it
gradually.
Create a learning environment in your home

Words and ideas are important. People talk to each other about what they are
doing. They constantly add new words to their vocabulary, fostering language
development.
Everybody likes to read and does it often. People read books, newspapers, and
magazines, and they talk to each other about what they are reading. People read
both silently and aloud to one another. Reading is a highly valued skill and activ-
ity.
Educational toys and materials are available. I would include computers and
CDs in this category, as well as educational games, models, puzzles, and problem-
solving toys.
Mother and/or father are available. Adults have a critical role in encourag-
ing and affirming the learning process of children and young people.
Academic aspirations and expectations are high. Children are praised for
their accomplishments. Parents talk about the future and what it holds in terms of
schooling. They also talk about their jobs and the kind of education and training it
takes to be successful in that job.
Learning behavior is modeled by parents. Parents tackle a new skill or field of
knowledge and let their children see that learning is fun. Family members work
on projects that require reading and math for completion. Everyone is encouraged
to look up answers to questions in books and encyclopedias.
[Reprinted with permission from "The Dog Ate If—Conquering Homework Hassles, by
Elaine K. McEwan (Shaw, 1996). Elaine McEwan is an educational consultant and a well-
known author, lecturer, and workshop leader for parents, teachers, and administrators. For
more information, visit her Web site at www.elainemcewan.com.]
63
Part II
LEADERSHIP IN ACTION
CHAPTER FIVE
Effective Leaders
Create Effective Policies
Fve never heard of an Honor Code or an Academic Integrity Policy before.

Schools should adopt a code like this so students know the limits. At our
school, during the first week, students are required to sign forms agreeing
to the school dress code, attendance policies, homework policies, and drug
policies. If students break these codes they know they are subject to pun-
ishment. If cheating and plagiarism guidelines aren't presented to students
in writing, they'll get around them. We all know how to work the system.
If punishments aren't clear, students don't fear the consequences of their
cheating. 11th grade girl
The stories in this chapter are told by students, teachers, and administrators
who decided it was time for a change. They attended conferences and training
sessions, and initiated and conducted meetings with other students and teachers.
They involved parents, administrators, School Board members, and their commu-
nities. They built support for positive change and helped to develop the school and
district policies required. We hope their stories will encourage similar programs at
other schools where cheating and plagiarism have been ignored far too long. We
also hope they will prompt educators to listen to their students and to include them
in all phases of policy development and implementation.
Trusting students to participate in the establishment, promotion and enforce-

ment of community values is a difficult challenge. Traditionally, schools
have been hierarchical with students being at the bottom. But educators are
realizing that when trusted and when given an opportunity to participate in
the vision of the school, students have a great deal to contribute. Moreover,
the participation had had other positive consequences. Namely, the adoles-
cent desire to belong results in expressions of loyalty to the school, rather
than the sub-group. The more of this type of loyalty which we can inspire,
the less cheating behavior we will see. (Kennedy, par. 26)
Six students and one teacher from Marple Newtown High School in Newtown
Square, Pennsylvania, attended an Ethics in Education Conference at the Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania and returned to campus as strong advocates for academic
integrity at their school.
The Honor Code at St. Andrew's Episcopal School in Austin, Texas, was de-
veloped in a series of open meetings of concerned students and faculty. Students
accused of violating the Honor Code appear before an Honor Council made up of
ten students elected by the student body and four teachers selected by the faculty.
The Council is chaired by the Dean.
Students at Staples High School in Westport, Connecticut, asked their princi-
pal to help stop widespread cheating. A student article in the school newspaper
brought campus attention to the problem and led to the formation of an Academic
Integrity Committee made up of students, teachers, parents, and administrators.
This committee led the development and implementation of the school's new
Academic Integrity Policy.
A high school student serves as a member of the School Board of the Washing-
ton County Schools in Maryland. The School Board and Superintendent have set
high academic standards accompanied by high standards for civic and ethical be-
havior. The Academic Integrity Policy developed to support these standards was a
joint effort of the entire community. Parents, students, staff, PTA members, public
and college librarians, community leaders, elected officials, civic groups, and re-
ligious leaders provided ideas and feedback. The policy has been adopted by the
School Board as an official policy for all 46 schools in Washington County.
Three teachers from the physical education department at Lennox Middle
School in Lennox, California, decided to tackle discipline and behavior problems
that took too much time away from instruction. Rather than focus on punishing
students, they initiated positive change by bringing the national CHARACTER
COUNTS! program to their school.
Educational leaders at these schools are making significant progress in their
efforts to change school culture. They took time from busy schedules to answer
our questions and to share their stories. They have our sincere admiration and
appreciation.
References
Kennedy, Robert. "An Epidemic: An Interview with Gary Niels." In About How
Widespread Is Cheating? About, Inc., 2004. 18 Oct. 2004.privateschool.about.
com/cs/forteachers/a/cheating_p.htm.
Effective Leaders Create Effective Policies 69
Resources
COPY ME pages:
Michael Josephson: "CHARACTER COUNTS!" and "The Six Pillars of Character"
the Internet Era: A Wake-Up Call: Chapter 8, Academic Integrity Policies.
Marple Newtown's Student
Committee for Academic Integrity
Joseph Borson f03 and Jennifer Gordon '02
In 2001, six students and one teacher from Marple Newtown High School at-
tended an Ethics in Education Conference at the University of Pennsylvania to
learn more about the concept of academic integrity. At this time, our school had
no formal policy on cheating other than vaguely worded clauses in the rarely read
student handbook and what each teacher told students on the first day of classes.
At a time when so much rides on performance levels in the classroom and on stan-
dardized testing when it comes to college admissions, a student may feel immense
pressure to outperform his peers and therefore resort to cheating. At Marple, we
realized that something had to be done.
The first stage of our campaign to promote academic integrity was to form a
club recognized by our student council. We named it the Committee for Academic
Integrity, "CAP for short, in order to legitimately go about effecting the change
that we recognized as being necessary. Next, we developed a clear definition of
what constituted cheating, and official policies and procedures to deal with cheat-
ing. These new policies were added to the student handbook as part of the student
discipline code approved by the Board of Education.
Our next step was to survey students regarding their views on cheating and the
tactics they used to cheat. The survey disclosed an incredible prevalence of cheat-
ing in our high school. To effectively change these cheating behaviors required
the support of our teachers. We knew that we needed to start young, as cheating
habits can be formed and crystallized long before a student enters high school.
Therefore, our next endeavor was to formally present the new policies to the high
school and middle school faculties.
This faculty meeting was generally considered to be successful. We believed
our presentations of both the formal policies and the techniques of cheating and
plagiarism (such as placing answers on the labels of water bottles and taking cell
calls during exams) helped to educate the faculty about the pressing problems of
cheating. While teachers were willing to hear about the subject, being lectured by
their own students came across as somewhat patronizing. Our committee never
claimed, nor did we desire, to dictate policy toward either students or teachers.
We wanted to be able to make recommendations and provide advice; our presen-
tations met this goal.
We were approached by English teachers from the middle school who had de-
cided to give their sixth graders prompts about the nature of cheating and integrity.
A few weeks later, when we heard the prompts, we were all touched by the frank-
ness and honesty the students expressed. It was clear that children were concerned
with what it meant to have integrity, at least in the abstract. Reality, however, was
rarely so simple.
In the spring of 2002, we were invited back to the University of Pennsylvania
to speak about what we had done about the pressing and real issue of cheating in
schools. We described how students can take actions to, if not completely solve the
problem, at least open the problem to public discussion. We left Penn with a belief
that we had made a difference; we had received recognition from schools across the
greater Philadelphia area. We ended the year far better off than when we began.
That fall we decided it was not enough just to educate the faculty; we needed
to educate the students. While the policy on cheating and plagiarism was in a
handbook issued to all students, it was clear that not every student had read every
word. Many students could, somewhat legitimately, claim they did not even know
it existed. We decided to send two members from our committee to speak to every
English class in the school. We delivered a standardized script stressing the im-
portance of integrity and the severity of punishment, both in high school and be-
yond. We read the entire cheating and plagiarism policy aloud to each class. This
ensured that everyone had heard and read our policies, and that ignorance of the
law could no longer be an excuse.
Overall, these presentations went well. While some presenters in some classes were
met with bored or apathetic stares, a significant number of students asked questions.
In some classes there were debates about what constitutes cheating and what could be
done about it. We now were sure students knew about the issue, knew about the Com-
mittee for Academic Integrity, and knew the school was serious about the issue.
We started many small projects designed to reduce cheating. In our school,
events and functions are advertised by flyers and posters taped to hall walls. We
posted anti-cheating slogans around the school, especially at exam time. These
posters, some serious and some less so, were the subject of conversation for
about a week. There even were a few parodies of our posters, proving students
were thinking about the issues involved.
An anonymous "tip box" was established so students could inform adminis-
trators (through us) about any incidents of cheating they saw. However, it soon
became clear that students didn't choose to use this box to the degree that we had
hoped. We also had some concerns about whether students should be directly in-
volved in the academic affairs of other students (as compared to merely advising
and educating about policy), and the box was decommissioned. While it proved to
be less than a success, it was a valid effort and we are glad that we tried it.
As the year ended, we returned to Penn, this time leading a question-and-an-
swer forum for students from other schools. They raised serious questions about
what policies would be considered appropriate, who should be in charge of setting
policy, and who should be in charge of dealing with complaints and problems.
They questioned whether such a policy should be so explicitly stated or left to
individual teachers on a case-by-case basis. We left Penn confident that what we
had started would survive and flourish, both in our hallways and in the hallways
of schools in the greater Philadelphia area.
The original members of the Committee for Academic Integrity have not
been students at Marple for several years, and yet what we started is continuing.
We do not know what it will evolve towards, but we are confident that because
of the efforts of CAI and those organizations like it, cheating and plagiarism
will no longer be a third rail in secondary education, but a topic of discussion,
debate, and relevance.
Addendum by Sandra J. Schaal, Faculty Advisor

The student Committee for Academic Integrity was established in 2001:
Purpose: It is the mission of the Committee for Academic Integrity to en-

courage the school community to achieve academic excellence in an honest
and dignified manner.
Goals: Increase awareness of what cheating encompasses; Establish an
Honor Code; Serve as a deterrent against dishonest practices; Prepare teach-
ers to recognize all forms of cheating.
The revised section of the discipline code dealing with the issues of cheating and
plagiarism was written by the Committee for Academic Integrity. It is now part of
the student discipline code, as approved by the Board of Education, and appears
in the student handbook.
Cheating/Plagiarism
Plagiarism or cheating, which are defined as the taking and use of another
person's ideas, writings, or inventions as one's own, will not be tolerated.
This includes:
• Turning in someone else's work (including homework) as your own,

• Copying another's lab report or similar assignment,
• Copying something word for word without putting it within quotation marks or
citing the author,
• Paraphrasing another work without giving credit to the original author,
• Extensive paraphrasing, even when credit is given,
• Failing to indicate where borrowing begins and ends,
• Cheating on any assessment by using another person's work or allowing another
person to use your work.
In the event of cheating or plagiarism, parents will be notified by both

telephone and letter, the student will receive a zero (0) on the assignment,
and the offense will be recorded in the subject department office. If cheating
or plagiarism occurs a second time, the student will be subject to disciplin-
ary action including suspension and/or expulsion.
Implementation
Simply stated, a student-driven program has more impact with students, and with
teachers and parents as well. We want our academic integrity program to be real
and to focus on the issues as they exist for students now. Student perspective is
essential.
This approach has worked well. The students are enthusiastic, and with each
new class, new ideas emerge. They struggle with how to relate to their colleagues
who do not share their concerns, but are willing to go out on a limb to promote
their ideas. The Committee for Academic Integrity has made a conscious effort to
avoid being the "cheat-police" for the school. Rather, they try to keep students and
teachers focused on the issue through education, discussion, and reminders.
The students who started our Committee for Academic Integrity were those
who attended the Penn Ethics in Education Conference in the spring of 2001.
They named the organization, established the mission, and began to carry it out.
Among the first actions they took was to sponsor an assembly for the National
Honor Society that featured University of Pennsylvania Honor Council members
as speakers. National Honor Society inductees now sign an agreement to practice
academic integrity.
Since then, CAI students have made presentations to faculty at both the high
school and the middle school to help teachers combat cheating and plagiarism. They
have made presentations to all incoming ninth-grade students and have held discus-
sions with sixth-grade classes who have written essays on cheating. During exams,
CAI students produce posters and TV spots for the school news program to encour-
age students to avoid cheating on exams. More recently students have worked col-
laboratively with teachers to produce a pamphlet on ways to combat cheating that is
shared with new teachers during their induction training. Marple Newtown students
have continued to participate in the Penn Ethics in Education Conference and have
made presentations to students from other schools at two of the conferences.
Publicity beyond the walls has taken the form of articles written by students
for the student newspaper, parent newsletter, and a local newspaper, The County
Press. Marple Newtown's Committee for Academic Integrity was also featured in
a front-page article in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Disciplinary action
Some of the disciplinary action has been handled by departments and some by ad-
ministrators. Some departments have developed form letters that are sent to par-
ents for initial infractions. Ongoing problems or multiple infractions are referred
to the assistant principals for disciplinary action. Every year there are a number of
cases of students receiving zeros for assignments ranging from homework to term
papers and final exams. We have rarely, if ever, been forced to impose the stron-
ger disciplinary actions provided for in our policy. One of our assistant principals
adds these comments about the policy from his perspective:
In my two years as an administrator at Marple Newtown High School I have

not seen a repeat offender for cheating in any form. The most serious event
related to a final exam for all Western Cultures classes. A student or students
somehow obtained a copy of the exam. They subsequently made an answer
key that they sold to students for $5. Details of this situation came to light
when a student anonymously reported to her counselor what had happened.
Consequently, some students were suspended and given a zero for the exam.
In addition, all exam grades were thrown out. Students were given the op-
tion of taking their grade as it would stand without taking the final or taking
another version of the final.
Words of advice
Do involve students. The ownership that comes from student participation is tre-
mendously valuable. Do take advantage of local institutions of higher learning.
High school students are very receptive to advice from college students who are
already "there" and know the ropes. The same thing is true of middle and el-
ementary school students who respond very well to the wisdom and experience
of high school students. At this point we have tried to avoid putting students in
the position of "preaching" to other students as opposed to providing information
and encouragement. In student-teacher collaboration, it has also been important to
guide students and encourage a "we're in this together" attitude.
School: Marple Newtown High School

District: Marple Newtown School District
City, State: Newtown Square, Pennsylvania
Principal: John Sanville
Grades: 9-12
Enrollment: 1,160
Faculty: 95
Web site: www.mnsd.net
[Joseph Borson '03 and Jennifer Gordon '02 are currently students at Brown University.
They are two of the original founders of the Student Committee for Academic Integrity.
Sandra J. Schaal is Faculty Advisor to the Student Committee for Academic Integrity and
a social science teacher at Marple Newtown High School.]
The Student Honor Council at
St. Andrew's Upper School
Bill Hayes
The creation of an Honor Code had been something that the entire staff had wanted
to implement since the beginning of St Andrew's Upper School in the fall of 1998.
At that time, a conversation was initiated with the first students (all ninth-graders)
about an Honor Code. However, the students did not have the maturity necessary to
discuss the topic. They could not get over the idea that an Honor Code would mean
they would have to turn in their fellow students. With all the other items that were
being created for a new school, this idea was tabled until the fall of 2001, when
the same students were now in their senior year and had an opportunity to attend a
conference on Honor Codes.
Students returned to the campus excited about how an Honor Code could posi-
tively impact the school community. Meetings were held during the lunch period
once a week, open to all students and faculty, where questions were posed: What
is honor? What does honor look like? How do you act in an honorable way? Why
was it necessary to create an Honor Code? Doesn't everyone basically act honor-
ably most of the time anyway?
Two key points emerged: (1) an Honor Code was necessary to focus the actions
of both students and staff, and (2) acting with honor was not easy for anyone. It
was this second idea that allowed the faculty to really buy into the time and effort
necessary to rework their curriculums to embed this lesson within their classes.
An examination of other schools' Honor Codes revealed two basic types, a
"Ten Commandments or Thou shalt not" code and a more positive code that
states what students will do. We adopted the philosophy of the second type for
our Honor Code. Brainstorming sessions identified the qualities that St. Andrew's
truly values: safety and respect, personal responsibility, and academic integrity.
We then began to write our statement. After two months of meeting once a week
the results of all the rewrites was:
As a member of the St. Andrew s Episcopal School Community, I accept

personal responsibility for my actions and their impact on other members
of our community. At all times, I will exhibit academic integrity, cultivate a
safe and respectful environment, and encourage all others to do the same.
No discussion about creating an Honor Code is complete without addressing the

"rat clause," or what students must do when they see another student cheating. One
of our students came up with the phrase we use: "and encourage all others to do the
same." We feel strongly about not forcing adolescents to take on the problems of other
students, but we do want them to be empowered to address the situation in their own
manner.
For example, when seeing another student cheating on an assignment or test,
it might be best if students confront their peer individually. The value of peer
pressure is generally a more effective means of changing behavior than is pun-
ishment from a faculty member. It also encourages students to take responsibil-
ity for their actions when they see something that shouldn't happen. Our goal is
to encourage students to police themselves. This is not an easy thing and does
not happen all the time. But when it does, it makes the school run more effec-
tively and is extremely rewarding.
In May of 2002, the members of the open meetings presented the wording of
the Honor Code to the student body during chapel and then to a meeting of the
faculty. The wording was approved without change by both groups and became
policy in 2002-2003.
In addition to the Honor Code, a daily reminder of our commitment to aca-
demic integrity is the Academic Pledge students are required to write on each
major assignment (including but not limited to quizzes, tests, major papers, and
lab reports). It states:
/ have neither given nor received unauthorized help on this assignment.
Implementation
Our next priority was to make the Honor Code highly visible. Letters were sent to
parents informing them of the new Honor Code. Posters were created and placed
across campus in all classrooms, the gym and weight room, the library, all faculty
offices, and the lunch line. The Honor Code is on our Web site at www.sasaustin.
org/HTML/USHonorCode.html.
An important tradition of signing the Honor Code in chapel services at the begin-
ning of each school year was initiated, with parents invited to attend. The homily,
given by a senior member of the Honor Council, addresses the importance of the
Honor Code within the community. Students and staff recite the Honor Code and
then sign five Honor Code posters, one for each class and one for faculty and staff.
These posters are displayed outside the main office and are the first thing seen by
visitors to the campus.
Our focus on the Honor Code continues throughout the year. One thirty-min-
ute advisory period each month is dedicated to some activity about the Honor
Code. These include discussions of why students cheat, case studies of specific
violations, pressures and stress that can lead to cheating, how the Honor Code
affects choices students make off-campus, and how redemption for violation of
the Honor Code is dealt with. Students and faculty on the Honor Council help
to create these activities.
In each classroom, the Honor Code has caused teachers to adjust some of their
assignments and to become more rigorous in defining the expectations for each
assignment. Specific information in each class syllabus describes what is and is
not allowed in terms of collaboration. Teachers discuss plagiarism and how the
work of others is to be cited. Our librarian has become an expert on plagiarism
and visits classrooms to help educate the students. "I didn't know," is no longer
a valid excuse.
Violations and consequences

The implementation of an Honor Code does not mean there will be no mis-
takes made by students. Initially, there may be an increase in instances due to
the new visible policy and focus on the topic by students and staff. Student
will still make bad choices and, for some, there is real pressure from parents
or other sources to "make the grade." It is important to stress it is the behav-
ior of the student, not the student, that is being addressed. Making a bad deci-
sion does not make you a bad person. When a severe violation of the Honor
Code occurs, students must appear before the Honor Council.
The Honor Council is chaired by the Dean of Students, who is a nonvoting
member. Four teachers are chosen by the faculty. Students elect four seniors, three
juniors, two sophomores, and two freshmen. Honor Council hearings are confi-
dential so students and faculty can speak freely. Students know not to approach
Honor Council members about a pending case.
Students who appear before the Honor Council may select a faculty advocate
to be with them for support. The Dean of Students presents the facts of the in-
cident as they are known and the student has an opportunity to respond. Mem-
bers of the Honor Council question the student and any other students or staff
who may have relevant information. The Honor Council then decides whether
the Honor Code has been violated; if so, they recommend consequences for
the student's action. Consequences have ranged from probation and community
service, to restriction from representing the school in certain instances, to expul-
sion. The Head of the Upper School and the Head of School must then approve
the recommendation. An appeals process is included in our handbook.
Decisions of the Honor Council are announced to the student body and staff in
chapel. Care is taken not to mention students by name; only the violation and the
consequences are stated. In my three years of working with the Honor Council, I
never cease to be amazed how the students take their responsibility so seriously
and how they always come up with appropriate consequences that are both com-
passionate for the individual and right for the school.
Results
In the short time we have had the Honor Code, we have seen great benefits for
our students and community. We have a common language for the entire school.
We can point to the Honor Code as a framework for decision making and ac-
cepted behaviors. An overall feeling of trust within the community between
students and teachers pervades the campus. Not only do the faculty believe in
the overall trustworthiness of the students, but the students are reassured that
the faculty really believe in giving them opportunities to demonstrate they are
worthy of this trust.
These positive results flow from the implementation of an Honor Code, but I
am reminded on a daily basis that it is real work to have one. The expectations of
everyone are raised and the consequences of violating the Honor Code are more
severe than violation of a school rule. The rewards of community building, com-
mon language, and a framework for the life-lesson conversations with teenagers
make it well worth all the effort needed, and still needed, in working with an
Honor Code.
Comments from St. Andrews' students on a 2004 survey:

Describe one time when you could have cheated in school but you didn't. Why
did you decide not to cheat?
Because I'm smart.
Cheating is just cheating. There are so many easy ways to cheat every
day from a pop quiz to final exams. I do not cheat because it is part of my
morals as well as the academic code.
I choose not to cheat because tests should show what you know, not what
you can find out from someone else. Also it would be lying if I cheated
because, if I signed the honor pledge and I really had cheated, it would not
be honest.
/ really have no desire to cheat because of my moral values, even if I am
doing bad in a class. I would feel bad about it because I know it is wrong.
I could have cheated one time in math because I was taking a test and the
teacher left the answers in the folder on her desk, and then left the room. I
didn't because I knew my teacher trusted me and I didn't want to break that.
Why would you never cheat, even when other students are cheating?
It is against the Honor Code.
/ hate the feeling of cheating. I would much rather earn a good grade on
my own. I value the Honor Code as well.
Because by cheating, I will not learn the material that I need, and al-
though I may get a perfect score on that exam, I would not learn and digest
that material, so really, it does not benefit me much in the long run.
It's easy enough that I don't need to cheat, and if I did I would feel I
wasn 't living up to my full potential. I can appreciate a little challenge in
math and science subjects.
I do not cheat because it is very dishonest. Honesty is a very important
thing to me. I would always like to be honest and trusting and if I do some-
thing to betray someone's trust then that would hurt me very much and I
would not be doing myself a favor and I would not be doing the people
around me a favor.
Because I don't want my teacher to lose respect for me.
Because most students who cheat don't do it very secretly and they have
a high chance of getting caught.
Because I realize that it only hurts me. By cheating, I may get a quick
easy grade then, but in the long run it doesn yt help. Besides, I don't believe
in cheating. It is not a good way to go through life.
Cheating makes me feel guilt. It makes me feel like I am doing some-
thing very wrong. I also feel really paranoid about cheating, as if I would be
caught the first second I tried. And it's probably something to do with when
adults say it's cheating yourself.
School: St. Andrew's Episcopal School

City, State: Austin, Texas
Head of School: Lucy Nazro
Dean of Upper School (grades 9-12): Bill Hayes
Librarian/Technology Coordinator of Upper School: Barbara A. Jansen
Grades: 1-12
Enrollment: 742
Faculty: 128
Web site: www.sasaustin.org
Honor Code Web site: www.sasaustin.org/HTML/USHonorCode.html
Library Web site: www.sasaustin.org/library
[Bill Hayes is in his fourth year as Dean of Students and math teacher at St. Andrew's
Upper School. He has a B.S. in Mathematics from the University of Massachusetts at Am-
herst and a Masters in Educational Leadership from Florida Atlantic University.]
Cheating—A National
Issue Hits Home
John J. Brady
In the spring of 2003 Staples High School was confronted with the reality that
cheating was a problem that could not be ignored. Students came forward and
asked the principal for help in curtailing cheating. These students were tired of
seeing peers cheat on tests and assignments only to get high grades and grade-
point averages. Students pleaded, "Since many of us are competing for the same
seats at brand-name colleges, seeing peers cheat and get ahead makes getting on
the cheating bandwagon impossible to resist. Cheating is contagious. Please help
us stop cheating."
When these hard-working, motivated, and committed students made this plea,
our eyes were opened to a cultural phenomenon that is taking an ethical and educa-
tional toll on our young people. For the most part, our students want to do what is
ethically right and our teachers need to know exactly what our students know and
are able to do. Many have a strong drive to go to selective colleges and universities
and to pursue successful, "high-powered" careers. They are exposed to messages
from the school, community, and their families to act with integrity and to be re-
sponsible. They observe in their lives and through the media people who have got-
ten ahead by cheating. It is the squeeze of these conflicting pressures that compelled
our students to reach out for help.
From an educational viewpoint, teachers have become aware of the fact that
fabricated work, work plagiarized, homework copied, and exams cheated on cre-
ated a web of academic deception that is very hard to pierce. They are eager to de-
sign new approaches to assessment and assigned work that discourage cheating.
Development of the Policy

Once students came forward to me, we had them meet with our Collaborative
Team made up of teachers, students, administrators, and parents. We wanted to
wake up the school to what I was convinced was a serious problem. As this meet-
ing was being planned, one of our students wrote an article for the school news-
paper stating that cheating was an important issue that should be addressed. This
article helped to add urgency to the issue.
As a result of the meeting and our new sense of urgency, volunteers were
easy to find for an Academic Integrity committee comprised of teachers, stu-
dents, parents, and administrators. The charge to the committee was to come
up with an Academic Integrity Policy to drastically curtail cheating and to con-
sider and recommend preventative measures. The committee began meeting in
September 2003 and presented its report to the Collaborative Team in March
2004.
The Academic Integrity Committee developed a new policy that covered cheat-
ing, plagiarism, and fabrication. This third category, fabrication, was included in
the policy when committee members realized that one form of cheating is simply
making up information or sources. We are now confident that our policy addresses
all potential academic cheating violations.
The Academic Integrity Committee also looked at the issue of an Honor Code
for our school. Some student members of the committee advocated strongly for
such a code since they were aware of colleges that had instituted Honor Codes
with reported success. After much discussion, the implementation of an Honor
Code was not recommended. Committee members were unconvinced that sign-
ing a pledge would have the desired effect. The consensus was to implement the
new Academic Integrity Policy during the 2004-2005 school year and consider
an Honor Code once cheating has abated and a renewed commitment to high
ethical behavior is in place The hope is to change behavior with the policy and a
campaign to make the issue even more prominent in the school, and then consider
asking students to pledge not to cheat via an Honor Code.
Implementation
We have begun to build faculty support by sharing the progress of the com-
mittee as they have done their work. We have the commitment of all department
chairs to implement the policy in their respective areas.
Another issue we considered is how teachers can help prevent cheating in their
classrooms. Departments have been discussing developing various versions of
tests, assigning texts for analysis that have not been put on the Internet, not allow-
ing students to remove tests from the classroom, providing classroom calculators
for math exams, and simply being more vigilant in monitoring students during
testing. We have had to adopt a more jaded view of students as potential cheaters
instead of our once far more trusting attitude. This has been a very difficult chal-
lenge at our school since teachers and students, to a large degree, develop mutu-
ally respectful and trusting relations.
During the summer of 2004, we planned an implementation campaign for our
new policy. We developed a brochure that details the new policy and mailed it to
each student at home. We used the first faculty meeting in August to review the new
policy in detail. We also used the first Lathrop and Foss (2000) book to provide
practical tips teachers can use to identify cheating. We purchased enough copies for
each department to have a copy and the department chairs have begun to use this
material with their respective teachers. We reviewed the Academic Integrity Policy
with our new teachers during our new teacher orientation program in August. Each
teacher reviewed the policy with students during our opening day homeroom.
Each of these events focused on our understanding of what students told us when
they brought the issue forward. They are feeling squeezed and they want the help of
adults to align their beliefs with their actions. Our students know what is right and
they want our help to do what is right. We also focused on the educational exigency
of clear, accurate information about student performance. Our Collaborative Team
has identified "academic integrity" as a key goal this year. They are investigating
methods teachers have employed to design new "cheat-proof assessments. Cur-
rently a parent fact sheet is being developed to help parents understand what is al-
lowable assistance with school assignments and what crosses the line.
Our student government body is the Student Assembly. I meet with the executive
board weekly. I reviewed the new policy with the executive board at our first fall
meeting and asked them to discuss it in the Student Assembly. The current student
body president was on the committee that designed the policy last year. Students
have strengthened their plea for teachers to "make cheating as hard as possible." A
student recently stated, "if students are given a chance, they will cheat."
All incoming freshmen received the policy in a mailing home from our grade 9
assistant principal. Throughout the school year, guidance counselors will review
the policy with all incoming transfer students and their parents.
Looking toward the future

We are confident that our renewed focus on the issue of academic integrity will
have the desired result and that cheating will decline dramatically. Our students
asked the trusted adults in their school lives for help with this vital issue. It is our
belief that, with the help and guidance expressed in the Academic Integrity Policy
and its fair implementation, our students will be better prepared to act with integrity
in all that they do here at high school and throughout their lives. A concomitant
result will be that teachers will have more accurate data about student performance
and can therefore design instruction that better matches student learning need.
Staples High School Academic Integrity Policy

Definition of Academic Integrity Violations
In accordance with our mission statement, we at Staples believe in the
academic, social, and ethical well being of our students. As a result, the
following policy was developed in effort to foster, teach, and encourage ap-
propriate ethical behavior.
A. Cheating: An act or attempted act by which a student deceives, acts

dishonestly, or misrepresents work that he/she has produced on an academic
exercise or assists another to misrepresent his/her work.
1. Copying from others during an examination;
2. Collaborating on a test, quiz, homework assignment, or project with oth-
ers without authorization;
3. Using unauthorized materials to complete an exam or assignment;
4. Programming of notes, formulas, or other aids into a programmable calcu-
lator or electronic dictionary without prior authorization;
5. Using a communication device such as a cell phone, pager, PDA, or elec-
tronic translator to obtain unauthorized information during an exam;
6. Using online resources such as Web sites or e-mail while completing an
online exam without the permission of the teacher;
7. Copying computer files from another person and representing the work as
your own;
8. Taking an exam for another student or permitting someone else to take a
test for you;
9. Allowing others to do research or writing of an assignment; e.g.,
a. Using the services of a commercial term paper company,
b. Using the services of another person (family member, tutor, etc.) inap-
propriately, without acknowledgement;
10. Submitting substantial portions of the same academic work for credit in
more than one course without consulting the second teacher
B. Fabrication: The use of invented information or the falsification of

research or other findings. Fabrication includes but is not limited to the
following examples:
1. Citation of information not taken from the source indicated. This may
include incorrect documentation of secondary source materials; e.g., using
the bibliographic information from a source instead of going to the origi-
nal source yourself;
2. Listing sources in a bibliography not used in the academic exercise;
3. Submission in a paper or other academic exercise of false or fictitious
data, or deliberate and knowing concealment or distortion of the true na-
ture, origin, or function of such data;
4. Submitting as your own any academic exercises prepared totally or in part
by another.
C. Plagiarism: The inclusion of another's words, ideas, or data as one's

own work. This covers unpublished as well as published sources.
Complaint Resolution Process
When a teacher has reason to believe that cheating, fabrication, plagiarism,

or other academic misconduct has occurred, the following steps will be
taken:
A. Teacher/Department Chairperson Action

1. The teacher will investigate the matter with the student(s) involved.
2. The teacher will communicate the outcome of his/her investigation to the
immediate supervisor/Department Chairperson.
3. The teacher, in consultation with the Department Chairperson, may decide
to issue a consequence, and will communicate this decision in writing to
the student and his/her parents as well as the guidance counselor. This letter
will be placed in the student's file. If a parent/student wishes to appeal the
teacher's consequence, the Standing Committee on Academic Integrity may
be convened to review the matter.
4. The teacher in consultation with the department chairperson may refer the
matter to the appropriate grade level Assistant Principal. The Assistant Prin-
cipal may conduct an investigation and issue consequences where it is de-
termined that the Staples Code of Conduct has been violated.
OR
The teacher, in consultation with the Department Chairperson, exercis-

ing their professional judgment, may refer the incident to the Academy In-
tegrity Committee for the following reasons:
1. The student denies the charge.
2. Several students are involved in the infraction, and the teacher does not have
the capacity to perform a comprehensive investigation.
3. Other criteria warrant a broader investigation of the charge.
The teacher will forward copies of all information and written work per-
tinent to the Academic Integrity Committee prior to the hearing. A written
request for a hearing, specifying the scope of the investigation, will be sub-
mitted and forwarded to the head of the Academic Integrity Committee.
B. The student
In those cases where teachers, exercising their professional judgment,
choose not to refer the incident to the Academic Integrity Committee, the
student may request that the Academic Integrity Committee review the in-
cident.
C. Academic Integrity Committee

1. Upon receiving a referral, the Academic Integrity Committee will hold a
hearing and investigate the charges.
2. In order to assure a student's due process rights, the counselor and parents
of the student/subject of the charge will be informed prior to the hearing.
3. The student will have an opportunity to appear and may be accompanied by
a parent and/or counselor before the panel to shed light on the charges.
4. The panel may interview other staff or students related to the inquiry.
5. The disciplinary consequences and outcome of the hearing will be delin-

eated in writing to the student, counselor, and parents by the Chairman of
the Academic Integrity Committee.
6. In all cases where a student has been found to have violated the academic
integrity policy, a formal letter will be placed in the student'sfile,describing
the action and confirming the consequence(s) meted out by the school.
7. The due process rights of students will always be ensured.
The Academic Integrity Committee will make the final decision concern-
ing academic consequences on any case brought forward. The Committee
may affirm the teacher/department chairperson's consequence or institute
consequences with lesser or greater severity.
Standing Committee on Academic Integrity

This committee shall be formed in the spring of every year to begin its
service in the fall of the next school year. Members shall serve for one
year. The committee shall consist of five members: the grade level assistant
principal, one administrator, and three classroom teachers (each teacher to
be from a different academic department). Decisions of the committee may
be appealed to the Principal within three school days and may be made only
on the basis of new evidence.
The complete Academic Integrity Policy for Staples High School is online
at: www.stapleshigh.net/
School: Staples High School

District: Westport School District
City, State: Westport, Connecticut
Principal: John J. Brady, Ed.D.
Grades: 9-12
Enrollment: 1,475
Faculty: 170
Web site: shs.westport.kl2.ct.us
[John J. Brady, Ed.D., served as principal of Staples High School from 2002-2004. He
presently is Superintendent of Schools of the Amity Regional School District I Connecti-
cut.!
"Democracy in Action" in the
Washington County Public Schools
Shulamit Finkelstein
The 46 Washington County Public Schools are nestled among the rolling hills,
cultivated valleys, and small woodland areas in western Maryland. Enrollment
tops 20,000 students, one-third of whom come from poor families, yet are among
the highest achievers in the state. The vision of the School Board and Superin-
tendent is nothing less than to create a world-class school system by setting the
highest academic standards. While high academic standards are necessary, they
are not sufficient. They must be accompanied by high standards for civil and ethi-
cal behavior, including academic integrity. Over the past three years, the Board
and staff have engaged our various stakeholders in shaping what those standards
should be. By spring 2004, the Board had approved three new policies that codi-
fied our community's expectations for academic integrity, conduct, and dress.
As with all of our major initiatives, we used "democracy in action" to de-
velop our Academic Integrity Policy. We called for volunteers to serve on an ad-
visory committee; they represented staff, students, parents, the public library, and
the community college. We examined numerous academic integrity codes from
schools and colleges, public and private. We deliberated and drafted a policy.
We then sent the draft to schools, student government leaders, and more than
200 elected officials, community leaders, PTA groups, civic groups, and religious
leaders for review and feedback. We were heartened by their positive comments
and suggestions. The feedback helped us develop a policy that reflected the high-
est values and aspirations of our community. We received comments such as, "I
agree with this policy. I think it is great!" (from a student); "Good to see that the
Board is taking a position and developing a policy on academic integrity. Thank
you" (from an elected official); "Great to promote awareness of ethics and in-
tegrity" (from a citizen); "Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to make
recommendations to the proposed policy" (from a parent).
After two formal readings and postings of the draft on our Web site, the Board
adopted the Academic Integrity Policy for which all faculties, students, and par-
ents are held accountable. The official policy is on our Web site, posters were sent
to each school for display, and the policy is included in the student handbook.
Cards with the policy, including a tear-off "promise" card to be signed by student
and parent, were created for every student. Teachers received in-service training
on the policy and developed a sample lesson, the Plagiarism Mock Trial (www.
lincoln.edu.ar/hs_library/plagiarismtrial.html).
While it is essential for all in our community to be clear on what academic
integrity is and the high value our community places on it, the best antidote to
cheating is good teaching. When talented and creative teachers inspire and excite
students about learning, motivate and intellectually stimulate them, and create
learning communities in which students play an integral part, cheating becomes
unthinkable. Our new Center for Peak Performance and Productivity provides
continuous, high-level professional development to produce peak-performing
teachers who inspire our students to be their best.
Excerpt from the Academic Integrity Policy

Students have an obligation to their school, teachers, peers, parents, and
the community to act with integrity in scholarship and in general academic
work. Expression of original, well-formulated ideas is a fundamental skill
for academic and career success. Staff, parents, and the community must be
able to trust that the work of students is the product of their own learning
and academic effort. Grades and diplomas must represent honest work and
accomplishments. In a competitive world, it is essential that all members of
our school community uphold a standard that places the integrity of each
student's honestly earned achievements above higher grades or easier work
dishonestly attained.
Each student's work should be held to the highest standards of honesty.
Academic dishonesty in any form demonstrates a lack of integrity, shows
character that is inconsistent with the goals and values of the Washington
County Public Schools, and violates an ethic of mutual regard. It impairs the
school's educational role and defrauds all who comprise its community. It
skews the learning process and interferes with the assessment and feedback
process necessary to promote academic growth. It compromises the instruc-
tional process by giving teachers and parents a false view of a student's aca-
demic ability and effort. Academic dishonesty may prevent further needed
instruction and delay a student's reaching his or her potential.
All students will sign a statement of promise to uphold academic in-
tegrity. Parents must also sign the statement to acknowledge that they are
aware of the standards of integrity to which students will be held. Consid-
eration will be given for the developmental appropriateness of instruction
with respect to the policy. The statement of promise will be included in the
County Handbook for Parents, Guardians, Students, and Staff, and will read
as follows:
I promise to uphold the Washington County Public Schools standards
for Academic Integrity. I hold the qualities of honesty and integrity in
highest regard and will not violate them or support those who do.
Student Parent Date
The signed promise will be submitted to and retained by the appropriate

teacher at each school.
Washington County Public Schools Academic Integrity Process and Procedures is

at: www.wcboe.kl2.md.us/downloads/Policies/PolicyJ_integrity.pdf
Student Leadership in the Washington County Public Schools
Brian Williamson
Most educational policies impact students. Most students, however, do not have
the opportunity to impact the policies. As student member on our local Board of
Education, I was able to sit on the committee that developed the Academic Integ-
rity Policy for our county schools. Being the only student on a committee with
adults was a daunting task. Overall, I felt welcomed and respected in the group. I
knew that to properly represent the students I needed to be logical and also to be
willing to voice my ideas. After nine months of meetings, a policy was developed.
The process was long, but complete.
Initially, the group had planned on developing a plagiarism policy. We quickly
realized that the policy needed to be broader and expanded it to encompass pla-
giarizing, cheating, and facilitating in cheating. Throughout the process I believed
that the policy was becoming more of an instrument to discipline students, rather
than an aide in their learning. The spectrum ranged from zero tolerance, and fail-
ing the student, all the way to giving kids more than half credit on an assignment
for infractions. My opinion fell somewhere in the middle of this spectrum. Stu-
dents should not be able to get away with submitting someone else's work; mak-
ing mistakes, however, even moral mistakes, is still part of the learning process.
My experience on the committee was a good one. While I did not always agree
with group decisions, and was not always agreed with, the process still allowed
me to voice students' views. I believe that I had a positive impact on the policy,
as well as in the minds of my committee members. My hope is that Boards of
Education around the country will recognize the student voice and utilize it in
educational decisions.
District: Washington County Public Schools

City, State: Hagerstown, Maryland
Superintendent: Dr. Elizabeth M. Morgan
Number of schools: 46
Enrollment: 20,310
Web site: www.wcboe.kl2.md.us
[Shulamit Finkelstein, Executive Assistant for Strategic Planning and Board and Commu-
nity Relations, Washington County Public Schools Central Office.
Brian Williamson, Senior Class of 2005, North Hagerstown High School, Washington
County Public Schools.]
CHARACTER COUNTS!
at Lennox Middle School
Carrie-Ann Ortiz
Four years ago, teachers in the physical education department at our school were un-
happy with the attitudes and behaviors of our students. We had reason for our concern:
61 percent of our students believed it was okay to respond to an insult with physical
force and 63 percent admitted to taking another student's property. We were spending
too much time disciplining our students and not enough time teaching them the con-
cepts and skills they needed to learn in order to meet the standards.
Rather than complain, we decided to do something about the situation. I was
one of three teachers in our department who attended a three-day CHARACTER
COUNTS! seminar to be trained as leaders. Today the 121 trained leaders in
schools throughout our district include our deputy superintendent, coordinator of
staff development, curriculum director, teachers, principals, counselors, staff de-
velopers, security personnel, parent coordinators, teacher's aides, and community
members. If anyone had told me at my first seminar that in less than four years all
of our schools would be embedding CHARACTER COUNTS! into their school
culture, I would have said, "You're dreaming." Let me share with you what I think
are the three most important factors for building success.
First and foremost, you need positive, motivated people who want to make a
change. We started with three people. As our staff saw the positive changes taking
place, they started asking questions. They realized that it couldn't be just "a P.E.
thing." We all needed to work on improving the character of our students, as a
team. By going slowly and modeling positive change, others bought in. They saw
the changes with their own eyes and wanted to be a part. Don't get me wrong,
a certain percentage will resist and respond negatively. Continue to focus on the
positive people and highlight what they are doing. The negative group will slowly
diminish and become less vocal.
Second, we chose CHARACTER COUNTS! because it is not one more thing
to add on for teachers already overwhelmed with getting kids on grade level and
making sure they are meeting the standards. CHARACTER COUNTS! doesn't take
time away from an already packed schedule; it gives you more time to teach be-
cause less time is spent on classroom management. Instead of structured lessons,
CHARACTER COUNTS! is a framework with common vocabulary that you can
easily infuse into your current curriculum in a genuine and natural way. By teaching,
enforcing, advocating, and modeling the Six Pillars of Character (Trustworthiness,
Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring, and Citizenship), everyone is speaking
the same language. It is a matter of looking at everything you do through a different
lens and integrating the Six Pillars into all facets of the school culture.
Finally, be sure to include all stakeholders in your journey: teachers, adminis-
trators, secretaries, aides, custodians, security and cafeteria workers, bus drivers,
parents, and community members. Empower the students to take responsibility
for their school and to be proactive in making positive changes. As the students
hear the same language from all adults they come into contact with, they begin to
internalize it. For example, if a student is disruptive in the classroom, the teacher
has her reflect on her behavior and the choices she is making and complete a writ-
ten reflection that connects the Pillars to her choices. If this same student then has
a difficult time modeling respect on the playground during lunch, an aide will talk
with her about her actions and the reasons why she is choosing to be disrespect-
ful, again using the Six Pillars. It is extremely powerful and effective for students
to hear the same language from all adults on campus. Also, it forces the students,
through self-reflection, to be accountable for their own actions.
How do we know that we are making a difference and that it is working? I
could share with you all of our statistics and data, but instead, I will paraphrase
for you what a few eighth-grade students have told me about changes they have
noticed since they were in sixth grade.
• Teachers are greeting students and being more caring by asking ques-
tions about their lives.
• Students are fighting less, and not tagging or damaging school property
as before. Students are cleaning up trash and keeping the campus clean.
• Students care about their grades more and are doing their homework.
• Students are being more respectful to each other and to the teachers by
saying, "Good morning, please, thank you, and excuse me."
I asked students in my eighth-grade physical education class, "What was the

most important thing you learned in this class?" Of the 158 responses, 96 percent
mentioned one or more character related traits, 61 percent mentioned CHARACTER
COUNTS! by name, and 84 percent mentioned at least one of the Six Pillars. They
told me what they learned:
/ learned how to improve my character. I learned what I need to have to be

a great person with great characteristics.
To be a person of good character. I learned to be nice to people, to work
as a group, cooperate as well as other things.
How important it is to be a good person of character and how we can get
there.
All the pillars and to follow them. They really helped.

I learned that by treating everybody equally it can change my life and my
personality also, it might change theirs.
Character Counts. This was important because I learn how to value things.
To communicate and work together, to achieve anything. Also, to be a
person of good character by following the pillars.
Being trustworthy really helped because everyone ended up trusting each
other.
And, from a student with a different focus, "How to keep my heart rate up."
We are not where we want to be, but we are better than we were before. We
will always be a work in progress and continue working towards improving the
character of our students, staff, and community.
When it seems that you are at a standstill, remember that baby steps are still
steps in the right direction, and focus on the positive changes that are taking
place!
Time-Out Reflection Worksheet

Students placed in "time-out" often are asked to write a short essay about
what they did and why they are in "time-out." At Lennox Middle School,
students are asked five questions based on the Six Pillars.
1. Why are you in time-out?
2. Which character Pillar have you chosen not to model?
3. What could you have done differently so you wouldn't be in time-out right
now?
4. Explain what your new plan is so that you will be more successful in class:
5. Are you ready to join the class again and put your new plan to work?
They sign their response and take it home to be signed by at least one
parent.
Do YOU Need CHARACTER COUNTS! at Your School?

Brian Johnson
"How important is honesty and integrity in your school? What does CHARACTER
COUNTS! have to do with you? Do you need it?
Actually you DON'T need it... IF
• your school already has a common language among staff, students, and
community regarding important human values,
• students are honest, take responsibility for their behavior, respect other
students and adults, can be trusted to do homework on their own, are
good citizens in their community, and care about others, and
• administrators, teachers, other staff, and parents consistently model the
Six Pillars of responsibility (with attendance, on time to work, and on
time with paperwork), respect (for colleagues, administrators, parents,
and students), fairness, trustworthiness, citizenship, and caring.
IF that does NOT describe your school, I recommend CHARACTER

COUNTS!
I am principal of a 2,400-student middle school in a section of Los Angeles
with very low socioeconomic status and with a high immigrant population where
many parents struggle to make ends meet. If you visit our school you will be
greeted politely by students, you will see students at passing periods moving to-
wards classes politely and without touching others, you will see teachers waiting
at their doors for students to greet them as they enter class, and you will attend
in-service training, faculty meetings, and department meetings where character is
an item on every agenda.
We have a common language about values, and we believe passionately that
school is not just about the three R's; it is also about forming complete human
beings. We believe we are moving toward that goal.
My Career Goal: Athlete

Samuel Uribe, Jr.
The career that I want to have is being an athlete. I want to be an athlete
because I am good at soccer and because I like playing competitive games.
I chose to be an athlete because I have been playing soccer since I was five.
I also want to be an athlete because I like playing outside and playing with
other competitive kids. I also want to be an athlete because they get a lot of
money and they are famous.
The responsibilities that I will have are setting an example for littler kids
that want to play soccer. I need to show them that soccer is not so that you
can fight, it is to have fun and exercise. I also have to show them that when
you lose you should not blame the other team and say that they cheated.
When you win you should not call the other team names when you win. I
will also tell them that you should not yell at the ref.
The skills that I already have are shooting from far away. Another one is
passing the ball to my other teammates. What I need to improve on is pass-
ing harder. I also need to improve on kicking harder. I also need to improve
on kicking the ball on the ground.
CHARACTER COUNTS! Is Good for My Children

Elizabeth Hernandez
I am a mother of five children. I have a thirteen-year-old daughter and a ten-
year-old son who have been exposed to CHARACTER COUNTS! at school
for the last two years. I have always taught my kids right from wrong but I
had never used the Six Pillars to teach my kids. Since they have started see-
ing the Pillars at school I have seen a difference in their behavior.
Now instead of them tattling on each other all the time they talk to each
other and question each other using the Pillars. My ten-year-old had the
habit of telling little lies and thinking that it was not bad to do if nobody
got hurt. Then my thirteen-year-old would simply ask him, "Are you being
trustworthy doing that?" My son, being an older brother to a three-year-old,
would do the big brother thing of smacking him on the head or shoulder as
he walked past him, and my daughter again would question him with, "Was
that very caring?"
I am very lucky that my two children are being exposed to CHARACTER
COUNTS! at school because now they help me to actually use the Pillars
with their younger brothers. When my three-year-old does not want to share,
my ten-year-old will simply say, "Sharing is caring, we must be fair."
School: Lennox Middle School

District: Lennox School District
City, State: Lennox, California
Principal: Brian Johnson
CHARACTER COUNTS! Coordinator: Carrie-Ann Ortiz
Grades: 6th-8th
Enrollment: 2,400
Faculty: 120
Web site: lms.echalk.com
[Carrie-Ann Ortiz is Coordinator for CHARACTER COUNTS! at Lennox Middle School.

Brian Johnson is Principal of Lennox Middle School.
Samuel Uribe, Jr. is afifth-graderat Buford Elementary School in the Lennox School
District.
Elizabeth Hernandez is a teacher's aide at Lennox Middle School.]
COPY ME
CHARACTER COUNTS!
Michael Josephson
In my daily radio commentaries, I usually close with the phrase "character

counts." You may not know that this is also the name of the nation's largest
character development program. In fact, for the last 11 years the U.S. Senate
has officially declared the third week in October as National CHARACTER
COUNTS! week.
CHARACTER COUNTS! started more than a decade ago when 27 national
organizations, including the YMCA, AYSO, Boys and Girls Clubs, 4-H, and
major educational institutions formed a coalition. Today, the CHARACTER
COUNTS! Coalition is more than 500 members strong and reachesyzve million
young people. Its purpose is to promote a politically neutral character develop-
ment strategy based on values shared by liberals and conservatives, as well as
by those who come from both religious and secular orientations. These val-
ues—trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and good citizen-
ship—are called the Six Pillars of Character.
By discussing these core values —in classrooms, living rooms, and locker
rooms—young people get a consistent message about what truly matters. They
also see other people getting it.
While the primary responsibility to develop good values in kids rests with
parents, lessons taught at home do not always prevail if dishonesty, disrespect,
and irresponsibility are permitted or subtly sanctioned in classrooms and play-
grounds, as well as in popular music and television. And, by the way, lots of kids
are not getting fundamental moral education at home.
How does it work? CHARACTER COUNTS! surrounds young people with
reminders of good character and insights into it. CHARACTER COUNTS! is
not a curriculum, but rather a framework for sustainable character education.
It's not a set of lessons; it's the environment.
Teddy Roosevelt reportedly said, "To educate a person in the mind but not
the morals is to educate a menace to society." Education's historic goals have
been to help people become smart and to help them become good. Indeed,
the American Founders recognized that for a democracy to work, the country
needed "citizens of virtue."
Today, character education is widely accepted as a necessary and effective
response to poor choices, irresponsibility, and attitudes of entitlement. CHAR-
ACTER COUNTS! is one of the most successful and by far the largest character
education system in the country. Because CHARACTER COUNTS! is designed
to permeate not only schools, but entire communities, it is not just a fad. It is
sustainable.
CHARACTER COUNTS! has developed a wide variety of training work-
shops and materials, publicity and promotional kits, books, videos, and K-12
95
teacher support materials. Find out more about what's being done and what you
can do by visiting the CHARACTER COUNTS! web site at www.character-
counts, org.
[Michael Josephson is founder and President/CEO of the Josephson Institute of Ethics,

sponsor of CHARACTER COUNTS! online at www.josephsoninstitute.org and www.
charactercounts.org.]
96
COPY ME
The Six Pillars of Character
Michael Josephson
I've talked before about the importance of making moral judgments. The idea
is not to encourage categorizing or labeling the character of others but to clarify
personal moral obligations in terms of specific values and attributes that make us
better people and produce a better society.
The most effective framework I know is built on six core ethical values called
the Six Pillars of Character: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, car-
ing and citizenship. Thus, if you want to be a person of character:
First, be worthy of trust. Live with honor and integrity. Be honest, keep
your promises and do what's right even when it costs more than you want
to pay.
Second, treat others with respect. Live by the Golden Rule and avoid physi-
cal violence, verbal abuse, prejudice and all other acts that demean or of-
fend human dignity.
Third, be responsible. Exercise self-discipline and self-restraint. Do your
best, and be self-reliant and accountable for the consequences of your
choices.
Fourth, strive to be fair. Don't cheat. Be open and consistent. Don't jump to
conclusions and be careful in making judgments about others.
Fifth, be caring, kind, empathetic and charitable. Avoid selfishness. Do what
you can to improve the lives of others.
Sixth, be a good citizen. Do your share to make your community better. Pro-
tect the environment and participate in democratic processes. Play by the rules
and obey laws (unless you have a compelling conscientious objection).
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that CHARACTER COUNTS! [Apr.
3, 2002]
[Reprinted with permission from the Josephson Institute of Ethics. An archive of radio
dent/CEO of the Josephson Institute of Ethics, sponsor of CHARACTER COUNTS! on-
line at www.josephsoninstitute.org.]
97
CHAPTER SIX
Academic Integrity Policy or

Honor Code? Dealing with the
"Student Ratting" Issue
/ cant tell on my friends, because you just don't do that. You'd rather hurt
yourself than hurt the cheaters. If you tell on one of them, you have to tell on
all of them, and then your friends will get caught. My friends know they're
wrong and they'll get caught eventually—but you don't want to be the one
to turn them in. I just thought, I'll just work harder to get better grades, and
they'll eventually get caught cheating. So we both get better grades. 12th
grade girl
A basic tenet of many traditional Honor Codes is a requirement that students

report another student for cheating or plagiarizing. Students refer to this as "rat-
ting" and many refuse to do so. An Academic Integrity Policy generally does not
include this requirement.
Our current student culture regards "ratting" on another student as being worse
than the cheating. Before demanding that students report on their peers we should
consider the consequences the accusing student may face. No school should re-
quire or even encourage students to "rat" or "blow the whistle" without putting
strong protections in place to protect them from possible retaliation.
An issue of choice
It is important to remember that a student who chooses to attend a private or
parochial school with a strict Honor Code is exercising freedom of choice. Students
attending a public school may have no alternative school open to them. What is their
responsibility to obey a strict Honor Code, one requiring that they report a student
who is cheating or plagiarizing, when they have a strong moral or personal belief
that to report another student is wrong?
Legal ramifications of a whistleblower requirement as part of an

Honor Code
• Check what the district policy and the state education code say about stu-
dents' rights and teachers' rights, especially when one student is accused
of cheating or plagiarism by another student.
• Review the Honor Code and any "whistleblower" requirement with the
district lawyer.
• Require official action by the Board of Education to approve any policy
that could put a student whistleblower in harm's way.
Implementation considerations
• Involve parents in developing the policy.
• Formally review the policy each year with faculty, students, and parents.
• Explain the policy clearly to incoming students and their parents.
• Display the policy throughout the school.
• Include the policy in the student handbook and on the district/school web
page.
• Recommend that a student discuss the situation with parents before re-
porting another student for cheating.
Specific questions the policy should address

What rights and protections are available for the student making an accusation?
1. Will the student making the accusation be identified to the accused

student and the student's family?
2. In what situations could a student report another student, teacher, or
situation and remain anonymous?
3. Is there a written plan for faculty and teaching aides to follow to protect
the accusing student from harassment, bullying, or being ostracized?
4. Does the school/district provide legal support for the student or
teacher who accuses a student and is sued by that student's parents?
What rights and protections are available for the student who is being accused?
1. What protection is there against deliberate and malicious false accusa-

tions?
2. Are parents of the accused student informed as soon as an accusation
is made, when the investigation is complete, or only when or if any
disciplinary action has been taken?
3. Should the accused student have a parent (or lawyer) present when
questioned by the teacher/counselor/principal?
Academic Integrity Policy or Honor Code? 101
4. Does the school policy protect the privacy of the accused?

5. How does anonymity for the accuser impact the rights of the accused
student, teacher, or administrator?
One professor's view: It is not our students' responsibility to identify

cheaters, it's ours
We should take the pressure off our students whenever we can. It is their job to
excel; it is my job to assess and reward their hard work. It also is my job to main-
tain academic integrity in all my classes so the assessments are honest ones.
It is not the student's job to turn in cheaters (blow the whistle). It is my job to
catch cheaters.
1. Student A may tell me that students B and C have cheated, then:

• I cannot rely on student A's word, because student A may have a grudge
against B and C, and falsely report just to get them in trouble, so
• I will look for independent substantiating evidence.
2. If I find independent evidence, for example, test/row and seat number
charts to reconstruct seating during the test, then I don't need student A.
3. If I do not find independent evidence, then student A's report is unsub-
stantiated hearsay and cannot be acted on.
4. Either way, student A is not involved.
I have no expectation that students should help to catch cheaters in my classes.

Catching cheaters is my job, not theirs. It is my responsibility, not theirs, to create
a level playing field for all students by maintaining high standards of academic
integrity.
Finally, it the responsibility of the institution to provide legal protection for the
teacher or administrator who accuses a student of academic dishonesty based on
solid evidence. The institution also must support appropriate disciplinary action.
Academic integrity demands this of us all.
[Statement made by a Professor and past Vice-Chair of Undergraduate Education at the
University of California, Irvine.]
Concerns
The focus of this chapter is the "ratting issue," and it must be addressed clearly
and specifically in school/district policy and in all discussions of the policy. Stu-
dents and parents, especially, must agree to any policy requiring that students
report other students for cheating.
It is not enough to develop and adopt such a policy. To effect change in student
behavior and campus climate, positive action must continue throughout the school
year. Parents and the larger community must be involved to the extent that they will
provide support and encouragement to teachers and administrators charged with
policy implementation.
The development and implementation of an Academic Integrity Policy is cov-
ered in detail in Chapter 8 of Student Cheating and Plagiarism in the Internet
Era: A Wake-Up Call, and that information is not repeated here. The COPY ME
pages at the end of this chapter can help focus attention on the effectiveness of an
Academic Integrity Policy or Honor Code.
Resources
Article:
Gary Zingher: "Carrying Secrets"
COPY ME pages:
Roberta Ann Johnson: "What Could Make You Decide To Be a Whistleblower?"
Discussion Questions: Student Whistleblowers
Gary Zingher: "Snitching"
Robert Harris: "An Administrative Check List"
Keep the Academic Integrity Policy "Front and Center"
Diane Downey: "Students Respond to New Honor Code"
Academic Integrity Policies / Honor Codes Online
the Internet Era: A Wake-Up Call: Chapter 8, Academic Integrity Policies.
COPY ME
What Could Make You Decide To Be a Whistleblower?
Roberta Ann Johnson
Talk about actual whistleblower cases. Let students see how important the is-
sues are and how serious the consequences can be for a whistleblower. Then ask
students if they would do the same thing if they were in the same situation.
• How life-changing is it to blow the whistle on something or someone?
• If the wrong-doing were serious and the issue important enough, would
you put your career on the line? Your reputation? Your colleagues or
friends?
• What issue, what threat to the community, what act of unfairness or in-
justice is serious enough to blow the whistle over? (Note: public employ-
ees generally agree that they are more likely to blow the whistle in cases
where public health and safety are at stake.)
Show selected segments of films that tell powerful stories in dramatic ways.
Discuss the decisions made by the whistleblowers and the dire consequences to
them as a result of their whistleblowing.
• The Insider (1999), directed by Michael Mann, with Al Pacino and Rus-
sell Crowe
• Silkwood (1984), directed by Mike Nichols, with Meryl Streep, Kurt
Russell, and Cher
• Serpico (1973), directed by Sidney Lumet, with Al Pacino, Tony Rob-
erts, and John Randolph
There are many whistleblower stories. Think about what prompted these whis-
tleblowers to act.
What might prompt a student to become a whistleblower?

• The student believes the wrongdoing and its consequences are important
enough to warrant the action. (In what ways is it important?)
• The student overcomes "bystander apathy" and any ambiguity in the
situation. He/she must believe that the situation is really wrong. If the
culture is cavalier about the action, and others don't seem to be con-
cerned, the student may begin to wonder if he/she is wrong to think it is
so important.
• Data based on hundreds of cases and years of study suggest that people
who blow the whistle aren't trouble-makers. They aren't really different
from others in the situation with them. They are real people who face real
103
choices and real consequences. They blew the whistle when their thresh-
old of tolerance for the illegal, dangerous, immoral, wrong behavior was
reached.
Caution: No school should have a program inviting students and teachers to re-
port cheating without having strong protections in place.
[Roberta Ann Johnson is Professor of Politics and Director of the Public Service Program
at the University of San Francisco. She is the author of Whistleblowing: When It Works—
And Why (Lynne Rienner, 2003) and The Struggle Against Corruption: A Comparative
Study (Palgrave/ Macmillan, 2004). She was the recipient of the College Service Award
in 2003.]
104
COPY ME
Discussion Questions: Student Whistleblowers
The whistleblower says, "I did the right thing; society needs to know the truth."
• When and why can whistleblowing be valuable to society?
• What dangers does the whistleblower risk?
• Should we support whistleblowers?
• How would you react to a student who turns in another student for cheating?
• How do you think other students would treat this student whistleblower?
• How would you react to a student who turns in a student who has a gun at
school?
• How do you think other students would react to this student whistle-
blower?
• What happens when the whistleblower is lying?
How should a teacher react when a student reports another student for cheating
or plagiarizing?
• Discuss the school or district Honor Code with all students and be sure
they understand any requirement that they report other students for
cheating or plagiarizing.
• Let students know whether you encourage students to report cheating or
plagiarizing, and if you will take any action based on such a report.
• Don't say, "I'll look into it" if you aren't going to do anything.
• Clarify whether you will accept anonymous accusations.
A student whistleblower policy should protect both the accused and the accuser.
• Take official action for the Board of Education to adopt the policy.
• Consider all relevant legal issues.
• Define the process, including how a hearing will be conducted and by
whom.
• State the rights of the student whistleblower and the accused.
• Provide confidentiality for both the student whistleblower and the ac-
cused.
• Provide a process to inform the parents of the student whistleblower and
the parents of the accused student.
• Warn the student whistleblower of possible repercussions.
• Protect the student whistleblower from retaliation as much as possible.
Warning to faculty, administration, and Board members:
These are very complex and serious issues. Consider carefully in advance
how you will respond to any incident of student whistleblowing.
105
Carrying Secrets
Gary Zingher
Kids often carry secrets, things told to them in private, or troubling things they
have observed. Having such knowledge can cause them to be anxious. If things
go unresolved, secrets can gnaw at kids, making them feel awkward and edgy,
sometimes interrupting their patterns of sleep. They may pull in and tune out as
they search for channels of escape.
Secrets at home
When secrets are centered in their home world, kids can feel anxious about
their family's financial struggles, housing problems, or health issues. They may be
upset by an increasing level of tension between their parents and the possibility of
a separation or divorce. Any of these factors can be overwhelming, often making
kids feel powerless and resigned.
Kids who wish to seek help may not want others to know their secrets; they
may feel ashamed. There also can be questions about family trust and betrayal,
of kids making choices that may make them appear disloyal. Going outside the
family circle for help may violate the family code.
School secrets
In their school world, kids also may harbor many types of secrets. Some are
just the innocent kind regarding who likes whom, or who led the dancing conga
line when the teacher was out of the room. Some secrets are much more serious
because, if revealed, they can result in someone getting hurt. Other secrets, if not
revealed, might result in serious injury or even death. Or telling a secret could
actually cause a friend or classmate to received needed help. These serious secrets
can be a heavy burden.
Academic Integrity Policy or Honor Code? 107
Knowing that others are cheating or plagiarizing is an example of a collective secret,

a secret shared by many. Most kids are aware that these practices are widespread, but
few may be willing to try to remedy the problem. They don't know who to turn to, and
they haven't any guidelines.
Usually, in the end, a number of kids will succumb to peer pressure. Why put
in the extra effort to ace a test or write an excellent paper? They are used to the
hollowness of undeserved grades, and may even become cheaters themselves.
Besides, if any kids were to expose this secret, they are not sure what to expect.
Will they be targeted? Will they be ostracized? Who will protect them? By making
the right moral choice, they are likely to be punished by their peers while their dif-
ficult situation is ignored by adults.
Even the most conscientious students may choose to carry this secret, and to
look the other way. They are not really consenting when they hold back. They
simply understand the realties and consequences of whistleblowing. Why do the
responsible thing and take a stand when they believe they will not be supported by
their peers and by the adults at home and at school?
Our responsibility
Parents must take care that their children don't become over-burdened by what-
ever problems are occurring at home. This can be very difficult, but the alternative
may be a child so filled with tension and distress that completing schoolwork ei-
ther at home or at school is no longer possible. At the very least, keeping a teacher
informed about secrets a child is coping with helps with understanding the child's
performance and behavior at school. Teachers and educators can do very little to
change a difficult home situation, other than to be patient and perhaps refer the
child to a school counselor when one is available and the parents agree.
For school "secrets" about cheating or plagiarism, or even more serious issues
like a gun on campus, it is our responsibility to have clear guidelines in place and
to make our students aware of these guidelines. We must make it possible for stu-
dents to take positive action without fear of being bullied or shunned. All students
should know what is expected of them and be certain we will protect them when
they do what we expect.
Student acceptance of, or apathy toward, widespread cheating and plagiarism
should provoke dialogue and discussion in all the classes. We can involve students
in exploring the ethical issues involved as they examine reasons why they or their
classmates cheat and plagiarize. We can invite their involvement in developing
and implementing an Academic Integrity Policy. The policy can provide clear
definitions of cheating and plagiarism with guidelines for ethical behavior.
We, as teachers, also must explore ways to make tests and written assignments
more creative and stimulating. We can help students to understand the relation-
ship between the importance of what they are learning and the reasons why an
accurate assessment of their learning is important.
Finally, the entire educational community must clarify for students what we
expect of them in terms of becoming a student "whistleblower." Do they keep se-
crets, or do they tell them to a trusted adult? Do they only tell some of their secrets
and, if so, which ones? Who do they tell, and when? These are important ques-
tions that must be answered before we involve our students in any whistleblower
role, a role that often proves to be difficult and dangerous even for adults.
Discussion starters
A challenging debate can be built by asking, "What is a whistleblower?" One
group can present the whistleblower as a "hero" who makes a valuable contribu-
tion to society while others see the same whistleblower as a "rat, tattletale, fink,
stool pigeon, or informer."
Parents and teachers usually try to discourage habitual tattling by young chil-
dren, yet teenagers may be told it is their absolute duty to turn in a classmate
who brings a gun onto the campus and may be threatening to use it. Who is right,
where do we draw the line, and who draws it?
In many cases, well-written stories with powerful themes can lead to mean-
ingful discussions. The examples in the COPY ME page that follows are short
excerpts from a much longer article in the January 2001 issue of School Library
Media Activities Monthly.
[Excerpt reprinted here from the January 2001 issue of School Library Media Activities
Monthly with permission of the author and the publisher. Gary Zingher is Library Media
Specialist at Corlears School in New York City. He is the author of At the Pirate Academy:
Adventures with Language in the Library Media Center (ALA 1990) and writes for Sc
Library Media Activities Monthly.]
COPY ME
Snitching
Gary Zingher
Examples of snitches abound in books and film. Hetty, the little sister in Caddie
Woodlawn, can always be counted on to point the finger or spill the beans. Tom
Sawyer's half-brother Sid loves to monitor Tom's escapades and report them to
Aunt Polly.
When the heroine in Bootsie Barker Bites complains to her mother that Bootsie
is terrorizing and hurting her, mother doesn't listen at first or take her remarks se-
riously. The Tulip Touch chronicles the relationship between two girls who begin
to grow apart when one begins to see her friend as devious, disturbed, and capable
of enormous cruelty; she sets fires and abuses animals. Is there someone Natalie
should tell about her friend?
Two girls who go through extraordinary inner struggles are Genevieve in On
Winter's Wind and big-haired Tish in Don't You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphey.
Both girls know the consequences of telling certain information could be severe.
What is best for them? What is best for their families? They are tired of vacil-
lating, weighing things, and feeling unresolved. They need, once again, to feel
playful and unburdened.
Younger children can enjoy Armadillo Tattletale and then develop stories about
other animal characters that are tattletales, perhaps dramatizing these as puppet
plays. The tattletale hen, for example, could report the rooster for oversleeping.
These are only a few of the many books and videos that can be used to help stu-
dents think through the serious issues involved when they decide whether or not to
tell on a classmate or friend who is doing something they know is clearly wrong. It
is our responsibility as teachers to bring "Secrets" and "Snitching" into the open.
Bottner, Barbara. Bootsie Barker Bites. Putnam's, 1992.
Brink, Carol. Caddie Woodlawn. Macmillan, 1935.
Fine, Anne. The Tulip Touch. Little, 1997.
Haddix, Margaret. Don't You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphey. Simon, 1996.
Hermes, Patricia. On Winter's Wind. Little, 1995.
Kettleman, Helen. Armadillo Tattletale. Scholastic, 2000.
Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Various editions.
[Condensed with permission of the author and publisher from "Snitching" by Gary Zing-
her, School Library Media Activities Monthly, January 2001. Many additional books, films,
and videos are introduced and discussed in the original article.]
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An Administrative Check List

Robert Harris
When dealing with suspected cheating or plagiarism it is best to be prepared for the
process ahead of time. We plan for fires, earthquakes, and strangers who may cause
violence on our campus. Now, an increasing number of schools and districts are de-
veloping plans to deal with student cheating or plagiarism, a more likely day-to-day
occurrence than are disasters
Preliminary considerations
Develop clear definitions of cheating and plagiarism.
• Define the levels of intentional and unintentional plagiarism.

• Identify specific cheating behaviors.
• Define the limits of permissible help from tutors, writing assistants, par-
ents, peers, and so on.
• When collaborative work is allowed, be sure that guidelines defining
individual responsibility are stated clearly. If cheating or plagiarism is
found on collaborative projects, define how responsibility will be as-
signed.
• Identify responses that may rehabilitate rather than only punish the stu-
dent, especially for a first offense.
Develop a clear process to be followed when cheating or plagiarism is

suspected.
• What is the process for handling an accusation of cheating or plagia-

rism?
Where are student rights delineated?
In addition to the teacher, who should be involved?
Who evaluates the evidence and decides if cheating or plagiarism has
taken place?
What are the penalties and are they appropriate to the offense?
Are there rehabilitation alternatives available for the student?
Can a teacher decide on the punishment or decide to stop the process?
What are the channels for an appeal of the decision?
Caan a teacher's decision with respect to the student's grade on the test or
paper, or for the semester, be overridden? By whom?
When and how will parents be notified?
What record, if any, will be placed in a student's permanent file?
Is legal counsel available for a teacher who is threatened with a law-
suit?
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Develop clear administrative guidelines.
• Are school, department, and district policies in alignment?
• How much teacher discretion is permitted in dealing with a case of cheat-
ing or plagiarism?
• Because plagiarism may not be discovered right away, is there a statute
of limitations?
Institutional questions to consider

1. Is there an Academic Integrity Policy in place and has it been adopted
officially by the governing board?
2. Is there a way to keep track of a student's repeated cheating or plagiarism
in order to identify the habitual offender?
3. Would it be useful to implement a special transcript grade to identify
cheating or plagiarism?
Conclusion
When a school or district makes the decision to develop an official Academic
Integrity Policy, it is always wise to involve all members of the educational commu-
nity. The faculty, administrators, parents, students, and community must understand
and support the policy. It is even better if they have had input into its development.
The faculty, especially, must agree with both the policy and the handling of offenses
so there will be a consistent application of the rules. The governing board should
adopt the policy officially. Parents and students must be as aware of this policy as
they are of the attendance and dress code policies. The policy should be publicized
throughout the community at regular periods during the school year, and training of
all school personnel in its implementation is a must. Finally, the policy should be
reviewed annually for any needed revisions; this also serves to bring it to the atten-
tion of the entire community at regular intervals.
[Adapted with permission of the author and publisher from The Plagiarism Handbook by
Robert Harris (Pyrczak Publishing, 2001).]
Ill
COPY ME
Keep the Academic Integrity Policy "Front and Center"

To stay effective, the Academic Integrity Policy should be introduced to incom-
ing students each fall. One effective approach is to make each year's seniors, or
students in the highest grade at a middle or elementary school, responsible for a
publicity campaign to review the policy and bring it to everyone's attention. Each
fall, ask all faculty, students, and parents to sign a pledge to uphold the policy and
abide by its requirements.
It is important to explain the Academic Integrity Policy to incoming students
and their parents throughout the year. Include the policy in the New Student
packet with a pledge agreeing to uphold the policy to be signed by student and
parent. Newly elected Board members and new teachers must be briefed fully on
the policy and their support assured.
Create a prominent link on district and school web pages

Emphasize the importance of the Academic Integrity Policy with a direct link
from the school's home page. Too often, users to must search through several
menu layers and finally guess that the Academic Integrity Policy is in the Student
Handbook, or perhaps somewhere else. It often is much easier to find the atten-
dance policy or dress code.
The school/district Web page also should have clear links to the following poli-
cies: acceptable use of the Internet and school computer labs; use of cell phones,
calculators, and other electronic devices; and permissible collaboration or par-
ent help on homework assignments. Explain any use of commercial plagiarism
detection programs. Create an online template teachers can use to adapt policy
information for their class syllabus.
Fitting the academic integrity policy into a crowded teaching day

The curriculum is filled with "must do" things that crowd the day; teachers
may resist adding even one more thing. These suggestions can keep a focus on the
Academic Integrity Policy without losing time needed for instruction.
• Put the policy at the beginning of every syllabus. Administrators will
create a template on the school Web site that teachers can adapt for their
syllabus.
• Print the policy in the student handbook.
• Print relevant sections of the policy in the student writing handbook.
• Hang a framed policy next to the clock or flag in every room.
• Print the policy on bookmarks given out free in the library.
• Print the policy on free book covers; add a few honesty and integrity
quotations.
• Have a contest for original quotations about honesty or integrity and
make bookmarks with the winning slogans.
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Create a pamphlet featuring the policy to be given to every student at the
beginning of each school year and to incoming students throughout the
year. Include a tear-off pledge for students and parents to sign.
Publish articles in the student newspaper written by the staff and solic-
ited from the student body and staff.
Write articles for the local newspaper.
Once a month, honor students who have "gone the extra mile" for hon-
esty and integrity—publicize their names and deeds.
Uase stories in anthologies or textbooks to stress the important contribu-
tions of honesty or integrity to people's lives.
Have the student newspaper sponsor "the most honest person I know"
contest open to students, parents, and staff.
Create aoriginal short lessons on integrity, cheating, plagiarism, and copy-
right to be used for an emergency substitute day or on shortened school
days, a lesson that can be picked up and used by a teacher in a time
jam.
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COPY ME
Students Respond to New Honor Code
Diane Downey
These are a few of the comments written by students in my eleventh grade English
classes at the International High School in Eugene, Oregon, two months after they
had signed the Honor Code. I was touched by the responses, and I think they could
help us to see the student point of view as we consider next steps for encouraging
academic integrity.*
Honor Code
In light of North Eugene High School's commitment to "Highlander P.R.I.D.E,"
which honors Perseverance, THespect, Integrity, Discipline and Excellence...
1. I will not cheat during tests or during test correcting. In addition, I will not
discuss test questions or answers with other students.
2. Though I may discuss homework with classmates, I will not share home-
work with classmates for the purpose of copying.
3. Plagiarism is presenting another person's ideas or writing—even a few
words—as one's own. I will not plagiarize.
Date:
Signed:
Printed Name:
Witnessed by Parent:
The honor code is a good thing, and it has been a good thing for me. At the
beginning of the year, I would try to find some excuse for not doing some-
thing or doing something. But the honor code has made me realize that ex-
cuses don Y matter. ...It has taught me to be much more responsible not only
for good things but also for bad. Along with that comes the responsibility to
do the work, which has become harder for me during this junior year. But I
believe it has bettered me for college. Thank you.
I feel that the honor code forces people to take a look at themselves and
ask if what they are doing is right. It makes them more conscious of it, and
makes people want to change.
I feel good about the honor code. I felt very bad before, because I was hav-
ing to read a bunch of pages from a book, while the afternoon kids could
walk into class with the answers. This code makes me feel much better, and
I know that we all have to do the same work. It restricts cheaters.
I think that it is a good idea because it makes you stop and think about mak-
ing sure you do your own work. And if you ask someone else to copy their
114
assignment and they tell you "no" because of the code, then it makes you
just do your own work.
I want to get the grade I deserve. I wish that everybody would want that,
but everybody doesn't. I do think it would help if we had a discussion with
all our teachers, and signed honor codes for all our classes. I think that all
freshmen that come into IHS should have to sign an honor code.
I am very glad you had a discussion with us and made us do it because it is

important for students to know that the teachers know what's going on and
that they care whether their students are honest.
It has made a difference; even my friends don't ask me to copy anymore.

Thanks ...it did help me to sign it. We all need a little reminder sometimes.
The honor code has been really effective. I think it is more than the honor
code though—it's a teacher taking the time to talk about a subject like that.
I think those are the teachers you respect and so you want to respect what
you put your word to. Since the code was signed, overall I have seen a lot
less cheating.
I think that the honor code has actually helped me not to cheat anymore. It
gave me a challenge that I accepted and so far it's helped me with my stud-
ies. The honor code was like a motivation for me to get my act together and
start getting down to business.
[*Excerpt from letter to the faculty, followed by the Honor Code and selected student
comments. Diane Downey is English Department Chair at North Eugene High School in
Eugene, OR.]
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COPY ME
Academic Integrity Policies / Honor Codes Online
Avon Grove High School, West Grove, PA. www.avongrove.org/aghs/

Belmont High School, Belmont, NH. myschoolonline.com
Benjamin Banneker Academic High School, Washington, DC. www.benjamin-
banneker.org/about_bbahs/handbook/honor_code.htm#honorcode
Blocker Middle School, Texas City, TX. www.texascity.isd.tenet.edu/
Bolles School, Jacksonville, FL. www.bolles.org/pages/7bollespage_id-668 —
37k
Brookwood High School, Snellville, GA. www.gwinnett.kl2.ga.us/
Citizens' High School, Orange Park, FL. www.citizenschool.com
Cliffside Park School District, Cliffside Park NJ. www.cliffsidepark.edu/
Conard High School, West Hartford, CT. www.whps.org/school/conard/index.
asp
Druid Hills High School, Atlanta, GA. www.dekalb.kl2.ga.us/schools/high/
druidhills/
El Toro High School, Lake Forest, CA. eths.svusd.org
Episcopal High School, Jacksonville, FL. www.episcopalhigh.org/
H.E. Huntington Middle School, San Marino, CA. henry.san-marino.k 12.
ca.usMieh/index.html
Lakeview High School, Battle Creek, MI. remcl2.kl2.mi.us/lhslib/
Langley High School, McLean, VA. www.fcps.edu/LangleyHS/saxon/honor.
html
Lexington High School, Lexington, MA. lhs.lexingtonma.org/
Lynbrook High School, San Jose, CA. www.lhs.fuhsd.org/
Morgantown High School, Morgantown, WV. boe.mono.kl2.wv.us/
Mountain Lakes High School, Mountain Lakes, NJ. www.mtlakes.org/hs/hon-
code.pdf
North Hunterdon High School, Annandale, NJ. www.nhvweb.net/NHHS/
Notre Dame High School, St. Louis, MO. www.ndhs.net/
St. Andrew's Episcopal School, Austin, TX. www.sasaustin.org/
Staples High School, Westport, CT. www.stapleshigh.net
Stevenson High School, Lincolnshire, IL. www.districtl2.kl2.il.us/
Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Alexandria, VA.
media.tjhsst.edu/pdf/honorcode.pdf
Timber Creek Regional High School, Erial, NJ. www.bhprsd.org/Timbercreekrhs/
Triton Regional High School, Runnemede, NJ. www.bhprsd.org/Tritonrhs/
Washington County Public Schools, Hagerstown, MD. www.wcboe.kl2.
md.us/downloads/Policies/PolicyJ_integrity.pdf
116
Webb School, Knoxville, TN (Honor Codes for lower, middle, and upper level
schools), www. webbschool.org/
West Springfield High School, Springfield, VA. www.fcps.kl2.va.us/west
springfieldhs/
Woodrow Wilson Senior High School, Washington, DC. www. wilsonhs.org/
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CHAPTER SEVEN
Librarians As a Force for Integrity
We in the School District of Springfield Township understand and value the

concept of intellectual property. Therefore, we strive to teach students the
ethic of responsibly documenting the ideas of others in all formats. To do so,
we believe that we must not only teach the ethics and mechanics of docu-
mentation, but we must also hold students accountable for the ethical use of
the ideas and words of others. Therefore, all teachers provide the instruc-
tion and scaffolding necessary for students to use research ethically, and all
students are expected to exercise good faith in the submission of research-
based work and to document accurately regardless of how the information
is used (summary, paraphrase, and quotation) or regardless of the format
used (written, oral, or visual). Plagiarism, in any form, is unethical and
unacceptable. [Excerpt from Springfield Taownship High School Research
Integrity Policy/
School librarians are an integral part of the educational team. They have access
to teachers in all departments and grade levels, and knowledge of all curricular
areas. This gives them a key role in creating an ethical school culture. They pro-
vide leadership in a variety of ways:
• Develop lessons and instructional materials in support of academic in-

tegrity.
• Publicize and promote the Academic Integrity Policy.
• Create a "virtual library" Web site as the hub of school instruction and a
one-stop reference service area for students, teachers, staff, and parents.
• Establish appropriate links to sites for library research, classroom in-
struction, and student research at home.
• Establish links to sites that teach correct documentation of sources and to
anti-plagiarism sites.
• Make teachers and administrators aware of problems associated with

cheating and plagiarism in the school.
• Call attention to relevant articles, provide information about changes
in copyright laws, and report on new trends in student plagiarism and
cheating.
• Publicize library materials and procedures that support integrity in stu-
dent writing.
Librarians can develop instructional materials to enhance the anti-plagiarism ef-

forts of a single classroom teacher, then take that instruction across the curriculum
to be shared and used by all. These instructional materials on bibliographies and
citation formats, proper quoting, paraphrasing, and so on, can be shared in print and
by posting on the library Web page.
These activities and many others are "all in a day's work" for the three librar-
ians featured in this chapter. They have taken the initiative in creating workshops,
pamphlets, library Web site materials, and virtual libraries in support of academic
integrity on their campuses. Their library Web sites are effective examples of the
"virtual library" concept. Students and parents have 24/7 access to a wide range
of resources. There also are instructional materials to help students understand
and avoid plagiarism.
Librarian Joyce Valenza and English teacher Carol Rohrbach led the faculty of
Springfield Township High School in Erdenheim, Pennsylvania, in a coordinated
effort to change student attitudes toward cheating and plagiarism. The resulting
Research Integrity Policy is the foundation for all writing assignments across the
curriculum. The "Clean Hands" workshop offers teachers a checklist to use in
creating student assignments. The virtual library provides effective student and
teacher tools to support the Research Integrity Policy.
Barbara Jansen, librarian at St Andrew's Episcopal School in Austin, Texas,
maintains a multilevel Web site with specific resources appropriate for each level:
lower, middle, and upper schools. Basic information on plagiarism and copyright
includes intellectual property guidelines, student materials on citation rules, writ-
ing prompts, etc. She has developed a Web Site Evaluation Form to assist students
in evaluating the information they find on the Internet.
Margaret Lincoln, librarian at Lakeview High School in Battle Creek, Mich-
igan, is an effective leader in her faculty's efforts to reduce cheating and pla-
giarism. Her workshops and library Web page are packed with information and
strategies to help both teachers and students reduce plagiarism. She generously
grants other schools permission to copy or adapt the cheating pamphlet developed
as part of this effort.
These three librarians represent hundreds more who work with students and
teachers to promote academic integrity in their schools. They are all, individually
and as part of their profession, a force for integrity.
Librarians As a Force for Integrity 121
Resources
Article:
Gretchen Pearson: "What's a Teacher or Librarian to Do?"
COPY ME pages:
Carol H. Rohrbach: "Take the 'Clean Hands' Test"
Joyce Kasman Valenza: "The Virtual Library at Springfield Township High
School"
Barbara Jansen: "Support for Student Research and Writing at the St. Andrew's
School Library Web Site"
Margaret Lincoln: "The Lakeview High School Library Web Site"
the Internet Era: A Wake-Up Call: Chapter 12, The Librarian-Teacher Team.
Changing School Culture at
Springfield Township High
School: A Research Integrity
Policy That Works
Carol H. Rohrbach and Joyce Kasman Valenza
Three years ago, plagiarism was commonplace at Springfield. When we asked

a group of academically gifted students to reflect on school culture, relating to
cheating and copying, they giggled a bit, looked at each other and then responded
almost in unison: "It's no big deal. Everyone does it and if you do it carefully,
you '11 never get caught."
It was clear we had a problem.
What was broke?

Concern about superficial cut-and-paste reports and epidemic plagiarism
prompted our school-wide determination to make a systemic change in the way
we approached research. Nearly weekly, a teacher would visit the library with
a suspicious student project. Joyce, our librarian, would check it for proof that
it was plagiarized. She very often was able to verify it as a plagiarized piece in
just a few minutes. Video interviews with students revealed a less-than-ethical
climate. Students almost cheerfully admitted that cheating was okay unless you
got caught, and that intellectual property—films, images, music—were fair game,
there for them to use.
As teachers, we were not only discouraged by students' blatant cheating. We
were also concerned that many student products were little more than series of
pasted quotes loosely woven together to resemble a paper or an essay. We couldn't
hear the student writer's voice among those lengthy quotes. Most importantly, we
didn't want our school to be identified by slacker attitudes and sloppy ethics.
Getting tough: thinking about policy and practice

The first step, our staff believed, was to get tough: establish a plagiarism policy
and punish students who plagiarize. On the surface, it seemed reasonable that if we
all held students accountable for their actions, if there were clear and consistent con-
sequences to plagiarism, students would be more careful, and their products would
improve. Yet, we had serious questions about a punitive approach to the problem.
• How do you prove plagiarism? We knew high-tech cheating was easier

than ever, yet harder than ever to prove despite available online and soft-
ware sources to combat it.
• Did students fully understand what we as teachers considered plagiarism?
• Were there ethical differences between intentional and unintentional pla-
giarism?
• Despite our district's articulated Language Arts standards-based scope
and sequence, did all of our students know how to gather information,
how to evaluate sources, how to synthesize information, or how to docu-
ment accurately, in all their classes across the curriculum?
• Could we be certain that we had taught our students how to act like com-
petent researchers, rather than regurgitators?
• Did we want to address the problem reactively or proactively? A whole
school problem requires a whole school solution.
Working as a team: it's about culture

We knew that it would take a team effort and we knew that we could change
school culture. As a team we had gone through Middle States assessment with an
increased sense of collegiality. As a team we had planned the multimillion dollar
renovation of the building. As a team we had developed a school mission and core
values; one of these values is integrity.
As a team we developed a schoolwide plan for improving research. We saw
academic integrity as directly connected to our efforts in improving research. If
we were to change student culture, we had to change teacher culture. The problem
was not a language arts problem—it ran across disciplines.
We hosted a full-day in-service on plagiarism to alert teachers to the problem,
asking them to share their stories. We developed and shared an informational
PowerPoint presentation, "What is plagiarism?" (mciu.org/~spjvweb/plagiarism.
ppt). The first Lathrop and Foss book provided powerful activities including Les-
lie Farmer's assignment asking teams of teachers to plagiarize a paper on a group
of assigned topics. Though we offered prizes for the best, it was difficult to select
a winner; so many of the plagiarized papers were so good!
The Research Integrity Policy

We decided that well-articulated documentation and plagiarism policies,
backed up by proactive changes in our instruction and assessment, offered the best
approach. Our Language Arts coordinator drafted a Research Integrity Policy, our
librarian reviewed and revised it, and the faculty gave practical "what if?" input.
Over the next two years we identified areas of student confusion, and our team
developed shareable tools for instructing and clarifying the stickier issues of pla-
giarism:
• how to paraphrase/summarize/quote
• how to weave quotes into text
• how to document traditional and emerging media formats
• the difference between Works Cited and Works Consulted
• how and when to document in-text or in-project
We developed organizers to help students restructure information, and we de-

veloped rubrics that value academic integrity and original thought and the research
process itself. The organizers, rubrics, and several assessment tools are located on
our Online Lessons and Activities page (mciu.orgrspjvweb/jvles.html).
Addressing attitudes and behaviors

In addition to explicit tools for instruction, we needed to address the behavioral
and cultural side of the problem. In every classroom teachers discussed expecta-
tions for ethical behavior. Teachers themselves modeled respect for intellectual
property in their own practice. Students realized that every teacher was on board.
Teachers were checking sources, returning questionable work, and holding stu-
dents accountable for the process. The message was clear: Springfield teachers
valued academic honesty and active scholarship.
Yes, we wanted our students to know that integrity matters and that across grade
levels and curricula all of us were serious about ethical research behavior. Yes, we
wanted a policy that focused on consequences but, more importantly, we wanted one
that focused on learning opportunities.
Including opportunities for learning

For a policy to be equitable, it must be both consistent and flexible. An oxymo-
ron? We didn't think so. Our policy distinguishes between the blatant, intentional
plagiarism of a dishonest student and the unintentional plagiarism of a student new
to our school or one who clearly is struggling with some aspect of the research
process. Our policy allows us the discretion to determine the best course for the
individual student. For one student, it may be the consequence of a zero and its
impact on a course grade; for another it may be retracing steps and resubmitting
the product for reduced credit; for even another, it may simply be a conference
with the teacher, or more involved, individual instruction to help in isolating the
missing skill. All instances are noted in students' disciplinary files.
Our goal is to improve student products. Therefore, including learning oppor-
tunities in our policy sends this important message to our students. Some students
would prefer to take the zero. Forcing them, with parental support, to "get it right"
gives us one more chance at the learning we were after in the first place.
The role of the Academic Integrity Committee

Our Academic Integrity Committee consists of our principal, Language Arts
coordinator, librarian, department coordinator, and the referring teacher. This
committee works with teachers to help determine, within the policy, the appropri-
ate response to each plagiarism incident. It provides support for the teacher and
the student. The classroom teacher is not the lone voice of concern. The commit-
tee informs parents of the plagiarism incident and provides an opportunity for
them to meet with the committee should they wish to do so. The outcome will not
change, but parents should have the opportunity to see the evidence, to understand
the decision, and to help their children learn.
One more policy

Finally, we added a Documentation Format Policy stating that any research-
based product, regardless of format, must include a Works Consulted/Works Cited
piece for visual, multimedia, audio, digital, and text documentation. Thus, we
sent the message that documenting sources always matters—it matters even if the
product is a poster, a speech, or a video. The issue is not the product; rather, the
issue is appropriate documentation for all forms of media (mciu.org/~spjvweb/
docguidelines.html).
Designing plagiarism-resistant (and engaging) projects: down with the

report!
We wanted to be certain that our students developed the intellectual skills nec-
essary for active rather than passive research. Before implementing our Research
Integrity Policy, we had to deal with these nagging concerns:
• Had we done everything we could to make sure our students understood

plagiarism?
• Did they have the tools, skills, and strategies to be effective researchers?
Adopting policies without changing our approach to research would not improve
students' research-based products.
One of the main reasons that students cut and paste is because they can! Ask
a student to do research for a planet report or a President report and what you get
is encyclopedic information—no brainwork necessary. There is no evaluation of
perspectives, no analysis of information, no judgments or application of knowl-

edge.
Springfield's faculty eliminated the report assignment in favor of assignments
that challenge our students to do something with the information they find—to
solve problems, to make decisions. We changed the questions. We began to guide
students explicitly through more thoughtful inquiry and thesis-driven projects that
value the research process as highly as the final product.
Having "clean hands"

Having "clean hands" is a metaphor for ethical and responsible behaviors. We
want our students' hands to be clean of unethical or sloppy research behaviors.
We also use the metaphor as we discuss the tools, skills, and strategies we want to
put into students' hands. The hand we want to see holds all five of the following:
Ethics, Accuracy, Evidence, Thought, and Process.
We want our students to use ethically the ideas, words, and images that others
have created; to document accurately; and to synthesize scholarly evidence for
their assertions. We want them to use the research process to locate and evalu-
ate sources. However, questions nagged at us about our assumption that we had
equipped our students. Whose responsibility was it to "teach" research?
If we leave instruction only to the Language Arts teachers instead of teach-
ing these skills across the curriculum, we deny our students the reinforcement,
practice, and consistency of expectation that they need. In what ways were we
unwittingly contributing to the problem of plagiarism? What roles did our current
assignments, instruction, assessment, and attitudes play?
Could we say that we had done everything we could to make sure that we put
the necessary research tools into our students' hands—did we as teachers have
"clean hands?" This metaphor offered us the dual meaning we wanted: "putting
into students' hands," and "having clean hands."
We adopted five responsible instructional behaviors across the curriculum:
the challenging assignment, clear communication, focused instruction, curricular
practice, and reflection. In-service workshops, department meetings, and faculty
meetings devoted to professional development gave the staff the support to imple-
ment these instructional behaviors. We used the "Clean Hands" test to demon-
strate teachers' responsibility. Only when our own hands are clean can we hold
our students accountable and can we determine when an opportunity for learning
would be more appropriate than a punishment.
What we learned
To make our efforts viable, we needed five elements to improve instruction and
change school culture. We needed to: provide professional development, develop
collegiality, include administrative leadership, seek consistency, and communi-
cate.
We had administrative leadership in place. Our principal valued active learning,

and our Planning Team (an advisory and decision-making representative group of
teachers and department coordinators) provided the sounding board for how we
would proceed. We learned along the way what professional development our staff
needed and desired; we included teachers in planning and facilitating the neces-
sary workshops. We created interdisciplinary teams for professional development,
workshops, and for our tuning protocol sessions where together, in small groups, we
shared and examined the student work resulting from our assignments.
We also provided one-on-one support for teachers as they designed assign-
ments, implemented instruction and practice, and even modeled mini-lessons for
classes. Finally, we provided tools for consistency such as "Five Tests for Thesis
Statements" and graphic organizers as well as custom tools for individual proj-
ects. In short, we provided a full court press to deliver the message that we were
raising the bar and leaving no one below.
We recognized that these changes involved the entire learning community.
Communication with parents was necessary for student success. Using our Web
site, faculty and student handbooks, letters to parents, and meetings with the PTA,
we communicated what had changed, why the changes were important, and how
parents could help. Back to School Night gave us the opportunity to talk to parents
about how our approach to research affected each discipline, each grade level,
each course.
Evidence of change
Following the first full year of our academic integrity thrust, we asked graduat-
ing seniors to comment about the ethical climate in our school. We videotaped the
following responses:
As we 've gone through the years things are hardening up. Our teachers
can tell [when we've plagiarized] As we've been developing our
research skills, our teachers have been developing skills, too.
Before, if I had paraphrased I'd think it wasn 't plagiarism. But now I know
if you simply take someone else's idea and paraphrase and change
sentence structure around it is plagiarism. Not only is it unethical, it
isn 't learning, it doesn 't further your argument. When you are doing
research, you have to distance yourself from your sources.
From what I hear about the policies, I wouldn't want to get caught plagia-
rizing. People are very discouraged [from plagiarizing] by it.
It seems that the systems and guidelines that are set up are successful in
deterring students from plagiarizing. It seems like people know it's a
very big issue.
It's not taken lightly. All the teachers enforce that it's unacceptable and
it's not what we're here to do. We're not here to copy what someone
already said.
128 Guiding Students from Cheating and Plagiarism to Honesty and Int
Finalcomments
In a culture of inquiry, in a culture of academic integrity, all of the stakeholders

need to understand the process of research, why process assessment is important,
how collegiality makes the difference, and why ethics matter. Making it hard for
students to take the superficial or the unethical route demands a communal, sus-
tained effort, but the results—a culture of integrity, honesty, and pride—are well
worth the cost.
Springfield Township High School

Research Integrity Policy
Rationale
We in the School District of Springfield Township understand and value

the concept of intellectual property. Therefore, we strive to teach students
the ethic of responsibly documenting the ideas of others in all formats. To
do so, we believe that we must not only teach the ethics and mechanics of
documentation, but we must also hold students accountable for the ethical
use of the ideas and words of others.
Therefore, all teachers provide the instruction and scaffolding necessary
for students to use research ethically, and all students are expected to exer-
cise good faith in the submission of research-based work and to document
accurately regardless of how the information is used (summary, paraphrase,
and quotation) or regardless of the format used (written, oral, or visual).
Plagiarism, in any form, is unethical and unacceptable.
Specifically,
It is the teacher's responsibility to provide:
• an assignment sheet with explicit requirements and directions
• a specific rubric for assessment of the process and the product
• checkpoints to facilitate the research process, to assist students in time manage-
ment, and to provide opportunities to help students during the process
• availability for students who are having difficulty with note-taking, document-
ing, or formatting procedures
• clear guidelines for acceptable help from human sources (peers, adults)
It is the student's responsibility to:

• meet checkpoint deadlines
• ask questions and to seek help from teachers and librarian
• follow the School District of Springfield Twp. Research Guide guidelines and
MLA or APA format per teacher direction (available online at SHS Virtual Li-
brary)
• submit an Acknowledgments page to credit help given by others (help that has
been approved by teacher giving the assignment)
• use in-text or in-project documentation accurately and appropriately
• use Works Cited and Works Consulted pages accurately and appropriately
• submit only his/her own work
Plagiarism includes:
• Direct copying of the work of another submitted as the student's own (from that
of another student or other person, from an Internet source, from a print source)
• Lack of in-text or in-project documentation
• Documentation that does not check out or does not match Works Cited/Works
Consulted.
• Work that suddenly appears on final due date without a clear provenance (does
not include checkpoint process requirements)
Consequences and Opportunity for Learning
1. The Academic Standards Committee (includes principal, librarian, Lan-

guage Arts department coordinator, department coordinator, and teacher
involved in referring issue) will confer to confirm the teacher's suspicion of
plagiarism and to determine the options for the student to learn from his/her
error in judgment. Upon confirmation of plagiarism, the student earns a zero
for the plagiarism, the teacher files a disciplinary referral, and a member of
the committee writes a letter to the student and parents to explain the deci-
sion and its ramifications, etc. Options include but are not limited to:
• No second opportunity (Ex. A senior who is not new to the high school
or any student who has blatantly copied a paper from another source, i.e.,
Internet source or another student)
• Redoing the project (Ex. A senior who is new to the high school)
• Redoing the project from an earlier checkpoint that was satisfactorily met
(Ex. An underclassman who, as determined by the committee, will benefit
from the opportunity to complete the process correctly)
• Adding the appropriate documentation that is missing (Ex. An under-
classman who has used a variety of sources and will benefit from the
opportunity to add the necessary documentation)
Notes:
• The student may choose not to take advantage of the second opportunity.
If so, the zero stands.
• A student may have only one "second opportunity" offer in his/her high
school career.
• A second offense automatically earns a zero without redress.
2. The teacher will assess the "second opportunity" work. If satisfactory, the
zero will be replaced by the lowest passing grade. If the work is unsatisfac-
tory, the zero stands.
3. It is possible that a student will fail a course if s/he plagiarizes a project of

sufficient weight. In this case, the student repeats the course or attends sum-
mer school. The student's summer school experience must include satisfac-
tory completion of a similar research-based project in order to earn course
credit; otherwise, the student must repeat the course.
This policy is online at mciu.org/~spjvweb/acadintegrity.html.

The Springfield Township High School Virtual Library is online at mciu.
org/~spjvweb.
School: Springfield Township High School

District: Springfield Township School District
City, State: Erdenheim, Pennsylvania
Principal: Joseph Roy
Librarian: Joyce Kasman Valenza
English Department Chair: Carol H. Rohrbach
Grades: 8-12
Enrollment: 900
Faculty: 63
Library Web site: mciu.org/-spjvweb
[Carol H. Rohrbach is the English Department Chair at Springfield Township High School
in Erdenheim, Pennsylvania. She was a finalist for the 2003 Pennsylvania Teacher of
the Year. During her 25-year teaching career, she has been named an Outstanding High
School Educator by colleges such as University of Chicago and University of Richmond
and nominated frequently by students for Who's Who Among America's Teachers. She is a
Fellow of the Pennsylvania Writing and Literature Project, West Chester University. She
presents workshops on literacy and research and has developed integrity/documentation
policies and related documents that are currently being adopted by schools nationally and
internationally.
Joyce Kasman Valenza is Librarian at Springfield Township High School (PA). She is the
techlife@ school columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer and author of Power Research
Tools and Power Tools Recharged for ALA Editions. She is a Milken Educator and an
American Memory Fellow. Her video series, Internet Searching Skills, was a YALSA Se-
lected Video for Young Adults in 1999. The video series Library Skills for Children was
released in 2003, and her six-volume video series Research Skills for Students was released
in Fall 2004. Her newest book, Super Searchers Go to School, was published by Informa-
tion Today. Her Virtual Library won the IASL School Library Web Page of the Year Award
for 2001. She is active in ALA, AASL, YALSA, and ISTE, and contributes regularly to
Classroom Connect, VOYA, Learning and Leading with Technology, and School Library
Journal. Joyce speaks nationally about issues relating to libraries and thoughtful use of
educational technology. She is currently working on a doctoral degree at the University of
North Texas.]
COPY ME
Take the "Clean Hands" Test

Carol H. Rohrbach
Each participant needs a pen, pencil, or marker, a piece of plain paper, and five
small sticky notes.
Facilitator Instructs:
Trace your hand on the paper. Label each sticky note with one of the five respon-
sible instructional behaviors: Challenging Assignment, Clear Communication, Fo-
cused Instruction, Curricular Practice, Reflection. Place one note on each finger of
your traced hand.
As you move through the test, if you can place a check mark next to each cri-
terion of the responsible instructional behavior, you may remove the applicable
sticky note. At the end, if you have no sticky notes on your fingers, you have a
"clean hand!"
Do you create a Challenging Assignment? For help, go to "Planning a Research
Assignment: Checklist" (mciu.org/-spjvweb/researchassigncheck.html) and
"Best Practice For Research-Based Instruction: A Checklist for Teacher Reflec-
tion" (mciu.org/~spjvweb/bestpractice.html). Does your assignment:
start as inquiry?
make it hard to download a paper or portions of a paper, or to cut and
paste?
contain elements that change the approach, format,
perspective?
change frequently and reflect the here and now of each class?
ask students to incorporate specified primary and/or secondary
sources?
Remove the "Challenging Assignment" sticky note if all items are checked.
Do you Communicate Clearly? Do you give students (and parents!):
a rationale for the value of the assignment to student learning?
an explicit assignment sheet?
a rubric that assesses both process and product, given in advance?
a checkpoint calendar and step-by-step assessments to manage and
monitor progress?
clear parameters for collaboration?
a climate that explicitly values ethics?
Remove the "Clear Communication" sticky note if all items are checked.
Do you Focus Instruction and provide the tools? Do you teach and/or review
as they relate to your course content:
how to paraphrase, summarize, and integrate quotations?
how to use graphic organizers?
131
how to document in-text?
how to use graphs, charts, and so on?
mini-lessons for reading comprehension of these texts?
how to organize and format a Works Cited/Works Consulted page?
Do you actively help your students think through the issues and solve
problems by giving them graphic organizers, structures, and resources
as the need arises?
Do you help students locate materials meaningful to them and appro-
priate to their developmental and reading levels?
Do you use time management intervention (parent contact, workshop
points, etc.)?
Remove the "Focused Instruction" sticky note if all items are checked.
Do you provide Curricular Practice?
Do you teach how to evaluate text?

Do you provide opportunities within your curriculum to practice the
higher-level thinking skills of synthesis and evaluating bias?
Do you regularly provide class and homework activities that ask stu-
dents to defend, justify, weigh, compare, develop criteria, work with
primary documents?
Do you use research-based class activities regularly: debates, inter-
views, and so forth?
Remove the "Practice" sticky note if all items are checked.
Do you Reflect?
Do you use your students' work to reflect on the efficacy of your
efforts?
Remove the "Reflection" sticky note if this item is checked.
So, are your hands clean?
[Carol H. Rohrbach is the English Department Chair at Springfield Township High School
in Erdenheim, Pennsylvania. She was a finalist for the 2003 Pennsylvania Teacher of
the Year. During her 25-year teaching career, she has been named an Outstanding High
School Educator by colleges such as University of Chicago and University of Richmond
and nominated frequently by students for Who's Who Among America's Teachers. She is a
Fellow of the Pennsylvania Writing and Literature Project, West Chester University. She
presents workshops on literacy and research and has developed integrity/documentation
policies and related documents that are currently being adopted by schools nationally and
internationally.]
132
COPY ME
The Virtual Library at Springfield Township High School
Joyce Kasman Valenza
A quality library program can make a dramatic impact on learners. But its
impact is not limited to library hours and library space. Virtual school libraries
are a second front door. They significantly expand and reinterpret the concept of
library service. They meet young users' needs while respecting their sense of self-
efficacy. They are virtual spaces where teacher-librarians can translate learner-
centered instructional programs to an online environment, and meet young people
where they live and play and work—on the Web. It is likely the twenty-first cen-
tury school library Web site will have as broad an influence as its physical coun-
terpart. A truly relevant school library should achieve its mission for learners both
physically and virtually.
Our Virtual Library won the IASL/Concord Website of the Year award for
2000/2001 and has been featured in several educational journals and books. Over
the course of nine years, the site has grown and changed as I continue to adapt it
to meet students' research and learning needs.
Tools for Students

Our Research Integrity Policy sets the ethical tone for research across the cur-
riculum. mciu.org/~spjvweb/acadintegrity.html
Our comprehensive Online Research Guide takes students through each step
of the research process. www.sdst.org/rguide/Image:642004_l3430_0.bmp
Our Research Checkbric reminds students of the importance of the process—
planning, gathering, organizing, documenting, and reflecting—as they
work, mciu.org/~spjvweb/checbric.html
Our Pathfinders! page clears a 24/7 path through the information jungle for
students. It allows us to scaffold and model selection, evaluation, strategies,
and balance without over-intruding, mciu.org/~spjvweb/pathmenu.html
Our Catalogs and Databases page leads students to a rich collection of data-
bases beyond the free Web. mciu.org/~spjvweb/catalogs.html
Our Search Tools page has links to search engines, subject directories, search
strategies, and much more, mciu.org/~spjvweb/searchtim.html
Our Guidelines for Documentation Formats: Rationale policy states that any
research-based product, regardless of format, must include a Works Con-
sulted/Works Cited piece for visual, multimedia, audio, digital, and text
documentation, mciu.org/~spjvweb/docguidelines.html
Our detailed MLA Bibliographic Style guide has documentation examples for
all likely resource types, mciu.org/~spjvweb/mla.html
Tools for Teachers

Our Online Lessons and Activities page features collaborative, inquiry-driven
activities, student handouts, scaffolds, and professional development activi-
ties. mciu.org/~spjvweb/jvles.html
133
Our Best Practice for Research-Based Instruction is a checklist for teacher
reflection, mciu.org/~spjvweb/bestpractice.html
Our Planning a Research Assignment: Checklist outlines the important points
in design and assessment, mciu.org/~spjvweb/researchassigncheck.html
Our Rubric for a Research Project provides a framework for grading the pro-
cess and the product, mciu.org/~spjvweb/resrub.html
Our What is plagiarism? PowerPoint presentation can be used with students or
faculty; please credit our school, mciu.org/~spjvweb/plagiarism.ppt
Video: "Avoiding Plagiarism" ("Research Skills for Students" Series)

"Using someone else's words, ideas or artistic creations without acknowl-
edgement is plagiarism—and whether it's deliberate or unintentional, it can have
serious consequences. Plagiarism can be avoided by understanding how to or-
ganize time and research notes; quote, paraphrase, and summarize information;
and properly document and cite sources. By following these practices correctly,
students not only steer clear of plagiarism but also achieve the academic integrity
that comes with creating a successful project with their own thoughts and ideas.
Designed for students in grades 7-12." (Video description from catalog, Schless-
inger Media, 2004. www.libraryvideo.com/sm/sm_home.asp).
[Joyce Kasman Valenza is Librarian at Springfield Township High School (PA). She is the
techlife® school columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer and author of Power Research
Tools and Power Tools Recharged for ALA Editions. She is a Milken Educator and an
American Memory Fellow. Her video series, Internet Searching Skills, was a YALSA Se-
lected Video for Young Adults in 1999. The video series Library Skills for Children was re-
leased in 2003, and her six-volume video series, Research Skills for Students, was released
in Fall 2004. Her newest book, Super Searchers Go to School, was published by Informa-
tion Today. Her Virtual Library won the IASL School Library Web Page of the Year Award
for 2001. She is active in ALA, AASL, YALSA, and ISTE, and contributes regularly to
Classroom Connect, VOYA, Learning and Leading with Technology, and School Library
Journal. Joyce speaks nationally about issues relating to libraries and thoughtful use of
educational technology. She is currently working on a doctoral degree at the University of
North Texas.]
134
COPY ME
Support for Student Research and Writing at the St. Andrew's

School Library Web Site
Barbara Jansen
The St. Andrew's Library Web site offers links to pages selected specifically for
each of our three major divisions: lower, middle, and upper schools. Each divi-
sion page links to databases targeted toward that age group, useful subject-area
links, and reading lists. We created our own original presentation guidelines,
assignment organizers, questioning strategies, and a research assistant for the
upper school students.
The site search on the front page was developed specifically for our school. A
site map traces the links from the main page throughout the site. There are links
to teacher resources, the online catalog, and the school's acceptable use policy.
Because awareness of intellectual property issues is a major concern for
today's students, we developed copyright guidelines and plagiarism pages that
spell out specific dos and don'ts for both. We expect our students to critically
evaluate the free Web sites they cite in assignments; they use the Web Site Eval-
uation form developed for this purpose. We also developed a "Quick Guide" for
bibliographies.
The St. Andrew's library page includes a section on how to avoid plagiarism.
Definitions and suggestions are blended with study habits, writing practices,
and personal behavioral tips that can enhance a student's chances for success.
Students are encouraged to discuss why they might avoid doing a specific as-
signment. Rather than just "cutting and pasting" a paper, we challenge them to
add to knowledge with their own original thoughts.
St. Andrew's subscribes to many online databases, including ProQuest,
EBSCO, NewsBank, SIRS, Opposing Viewpoints, Britannica Online, Oxford
English Dictionary, AccessScience, and Gale. Using online sources gives the
students access to many more periodicals, journals, primary sources, and en-
cyclopedia articles than a traditional print collection. In addition, the online
encyclopedias are kept current. These are easily accessible on the QuickStart
page.
The databases, accessible via IP authentication from school and remotely by
password, are one of the most valuable resources we provide for student, teach-
ers, and families. In addition to the subscription databases, the library pages
link to sites on the free Web that may be of interest or help in academic studies.
These general reference sources include current events, quotations, grammar,
maps, almanacs, search engines, and virtual libraries. They are identified as ap-
propriate for the lower, middle, or upper school students.
135
St. Andrew's library Web site was honored as the March 2002 "School Li-
brary Web Page of the Month" by the International Association of School Li-
brarianship. Current students rate it highly useful and it continues to be of use
even to our graduates, as some have reported using it instead of their college's
pages!
Author's note: see page 79 for school and library information box.
[Barbara Jansen is the Librarian and Technology Coordinator for St. Andrew's Episcopal
School's Upper School in Austin, Texas. She consults for Big6 Associates and teaches part-
time at the University of Texas at Austin School of Information.]
136
A Proactive Response
to Plagiarism
Margaret Lincoln
Students at Lakeview High School in Battle Creek, Michigan, are like their coun-
terparts in many a suburban setting. A fair number are hard-working, college-
bound, and academically motivated. They are increasingly technologically savvy
and not unfamiliar with the ins and outs of Internet plagiarism.
Teachers at Lakeview High School are determined to proactively address the
problem of online cheating. A group of staff members met in the summer of 2001
to draft Cheating: An Insider's Guide to Cheating at Lakeview High School. This
pamphlet is incorporated into our high school student handbook and is distributed
regularly to students at the start of each school year.
The cheating pamphlet

As a faculty, we address the problem with students by discussing Cheating:
An Insider's Guide to Cheating at Lakeview High School in all classes. This is a
straight-forward four-page document created with Microsoft Publisher. The lan-
guage is grammatically correct, written in student-speak rather than educational
jargon. Students appreciate the fact that they are not subjected to lengthy lectures
about academic integrity. We spell out the rules, give definitions, and set expecta-
tions. The complete title catches students' attention and sparks lively discussions.
A summary statement, also in the student handbook, reminds students and parents
of definitions and penalties.
Cheating includes the actual giving or receiving of any unauthorized aid or

assistance resulting in an unfair advantage on any form of academic work.
Plagiarism includes the copying of the language, structure, idea, and/or

thought of another and representing it as one's own original work.
MINIMUM DISCIPLINE: 1-DAY SUSPENSION

AND NO CREDIT FOR ASSIGNMENT
Students are required to bring into school a signed form pledging that they have
read all sections of the student handbook, including the cheating pamphlet in the
cheating and plagiarism sections, and that they understand the rules and penalties.
Parents must co-sign the form. Students and parents also co-sign an agreement to
abide by the technology use stipulations in the handbook. In general, favorable com-
ments are heard from parents, especially during conference time, about Lakeview
High School's efforts to reduce cheating and plagiarism.
Faculty workshops
As library media specialist and the unofficial expert on Internet research, I have
given several short, practical workshops to teachers on the detection and prevention
of plagiarism. I describe the outline and talking points for these staff presentations
in the January 2002 issue of MultiMedia Schools (accessible online at www.infoto-
day.com/MMSchools/jan02/lincoln.htm).
The workshop can be conducted in a 45-minute staff meeting. I begin with
statistics that reveal the widespread extent of the problem; for example, some 80
percent of high school students admit to cheating. Teachers reflect on reasons why
students plagiarize and on how to recognize signs that academic honesty is being
compromised.
I use a general Web site to demonstrate strategies to aid in detecting plagiarism
and the particular techniques helpful in finding misuse of online database articles.
Then we consider the important question of prevention.
• How can we best talk to students about overarching issues ranging from
bibliographic citation to copyright and intellectual property rights?
• How can teachers structure assessments so students cannot readily
cheat?
• What alternative creative written assignments can be used so students
are less inclined to plagiarize?
Teachers take the information and skills from the workshop back to their students
and classrooms, better prepared to recognize and prevent plagiarism.
Our challenge
Since our first attempts to address the problem of cheating, several classes of
Lakeview High School students have graduated and gone on to college. These stu-
dents have, undoubtedly, faced similar pressures and temptations to cheat at the
university level. As teachers, we must continue to educate ourselves on how to deal
responsibly with plagiarism and other forms of cheating in the electronic age. By
challenging our students to submit quality and original work, we can take a proac-
tive stance and work to prevent any form of dishonesty in our schools.
Permission to copy the pamphlet

We continue to receive a few requests each month from teachers and librarians
around the country asking permission to use and adapt the pamphlet. Unequivo-
cally, we answer yes! The pamphlet is available online and can be downloaded
from our website, academic.kellogg.cc.mi.us/kl21incolnm/cheating98.pdf
Image:642004_l 3430_0.bmp
School: Lakeview High School

District: Lakeview School District
City, State: Battle Creek, Michigan
Principal: Dr. Steven Skalka
Librarian: Margaret Lincoln, Library Media Specialist
Grades: 9-12
Enrollment: 1,143
Faculty: 62
Library Web site: remcl2.kl2.mi.us/lhslib
e-mail address: mlincoln@bc-lakeview.kl2.mi.us
[Margaret Lincoln is the Library Media Specialist at Lakeview High School in Battle
Creek, Michigan. School Library Journal honored the Lakeview High School Library with
the Web Site of the Month award in April 2002. Margaret Lincoln received the 2004 AASL
School Library Collaborative Award for her work in Holocaust education. She was named
an American Memory Fellow with the Library of Congress in 2000 and a Mandel Fellow
with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2002.1
COPY ME
The Lakeview High School Library Web Site

remcl2.kl2.mi.usAhslib/
Margaret Lincoln
Students quickly become familiar with the format and design of the LHS Li-
brary Web site because it is the default home page on all computers in the high
school building. They appreciate being able to connect to the library's electronic
resources from school, home, and other locations 24/7. Many students even e-mail
reference questions to the librarian. School Library Journal honored the Lakeview
High School Library with the Web Site of the Month award in April 2002.
Electronic Resources provides direct access to a wide range of full-text data-

bases available from AccessMichigan and links to many additional research
sites.
remcl2.kl2.mi.us/lhslib/Electronic.htm
LHS Library Research Guide is based on the Big6 problem-solving model
and gives step-by-step help to students who are working on written assign-
ments.
remcl2.kl2.mi.us/lhslib/Big%20Sixl.htm
Copyright Basics and the Internet reviews copyright law and gives guidelines
for usage. remcl2.kl2.mi.us/lhslib/Copyright.htm
How to Prepare the Works Cited and Bibliography leads students through the
general rules of correct bibliographic citation and then provides specific
examples, remcl2.kl2.mi.us/lhslib/works%20citedl.htm
Internet Plagiarism: An Agenda for Staff Inservice and Student Awareness
www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/jan02/lincoln.htm
Cheating: An Insider's Guide to Cheating at Lakeview High School [pamphlet].
academic.kellogg.cc.mi.us/kl21incolnm/cheating98.pdf Image:642004_ 13
430_0.bmp
Schools are granted permission to link to these sites from their own Web sites.
[Margaret Lincoln is the Library Media Specialist at Lakeview High School in Battle Creek,
Michigan. She received the 2004 AASL School Library Collaborative Award for her work
in Holocaust education. She was named an American Memory Fellow with the Library of
Congress in 2000 and a Mandel Fellow with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
in 2002.]
140
What's a Teacher
or Librarian to Do?
Gretchen Pearson
Cyberplagiarism, cut and paste, cybercheating, high tech cheating, "patch

writing," theft of intellectual property: all these terms describe ways students
use others' words and ideas without attribution.
Students under pressure because of work in other classes, jobs, athletics, or other
activities may not think it is worth their time to write an original paper, especially if
they are not interested in the topic, or see it as busywork. They may know of peers
who have plagiarized successfully, which in turn discourages them from doing their
own work. Remember, those who don't get caught talk, while those who get caught
don't talk, so the perception among students is that everyone who cheats gets away
with it.
Our response as a teacher or librarian will depend on whether the student's
plagiarism is intentional and deliberate or unintentional due to lack of skill or
understanding. One calls for penalties and punishment, and the other for better
instruction. In either instance, we will do well to encourage ongoing discussion of
the importance of ethical behavior.
Focus on ethics
Class discussions can help to discourage intentional plagiarism by emphasiz-
ing the ethical issues involved. They can help to discourage unintentional plagia-
rism by motivating students to learn to complete written assignments in an ethical
manner.
• Discuss plagiarism often, not just in the first five minutes of the first
class. Talk about the role trust plays in students' own lives, and why they
want to, and should be able to, trust their peers, friends, and families.
• Present plagiarism as an ethical and moral issue of fair use and intellec-
tual property, an issue of trust between student and teacher, and among
peers.
• Discuss ethical issues that affect their lives such as Napster, or receiving
a low grade for plagiarism, or even failing a class or being expelled for
cheating on a test.
• Develop an ethics segment for your class, or integrate discussions of
ethical issues throughout the semester.
• Discuss your school's Academic Integrity Policy. If neither your school
nor your department has a policy, work with your students and faculty to
create interest in developing one. Help organize a committee of faculty,
administrators, students, and parents. All of these groups must "own" the
policy; a policy written without the support of everyone involved and
affected will have little value.
• Develop a Research Integrity Policy. Discuss ideas related to integrity
in research with your students, and with your faculty. Ask students to
discuss the ideas with their friends, other teachers, and parents. Start
with a policy for your own class; perhaps it will spread throughout your
department, school, and district.
• Invite a college teacher to talk about the ramifications of cheating and
plagiarism in college. Anecdotes about students not being admitted to
college after plagiarizing in high school can be used as illustrations.
• Talk about past cases when other students at your school have been
caught plagiarizing and discuss the penalties that were assigned.
• Talk about why and how scholars use citations and references, so that
students don't think of it as busywork.
What's a librarian to do?

Collaborate with teachers across the curriculum in teaching students to locate,
evaluate, and use information effectively in all subject areas.
• Teach the search strategies that will be most useful in online searching.
• Teach students to evaluate the information they find and to evaluate the
credibility of the Web site they are using.
Become the school expert on plagiarism.
• Be familiar with the tools and sites students use for research and how
they use them.
• Help teachers track down original sources in cases of suspected plagia-
rism.
Provide leadership in developing policies and handbooks.
• Help create interest and organization to develop an Academic Integrity

Policy and a Research Integrity Policy if your school does not have one
or both.
• Offer to help the English teachers develop a Writing Handbook or to
revise an existing one to include guidelines that can help to prevent pla-
giarism.
Develop instructional materials and Web sites.
• Work with teachers across the curriculum to develop writing assignments

that are interesting and challenging, ones with specific requirements for
content or references that can help to make plagiarizing more difficult.
• Provide print and online guides for citing information correctly (MLA,
APA, etc.).
• Refer students and teachers to online writing centers that focus on teach-
ing the skills of quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing, synthesizing, and
correct citation.
• On your school library Web site, provide links to online writing centers
and to anti-plagiarism instruction sites.
Deterring unintentional plagiarism

Define and discuss the many aspects of plagiarism.
• Make sure students know what plagiarism is. One student said that it
wasn't plagiarism because it was on the Internet; another said it wasn't
plagiarism because there was no copyright symbol.
• Clarify the issues of copyright and intellectual property so students won't
confuse fair use with not needing to cite sources.
• Discuss and clarify the concept of "common knowledge." One professor
reportedly told students that it's not plagiarism if you take it out of an
encyclopedia because "that's common knowledge."
Teach the skills students need to have confidence in their own research abilities.
• Collaborate with your librarian to teach effective search strategies for

both print and online sources.
• Conduct several online searches as a class.
• As a class, critically evaluate the information available at a variety of
online sites.
• Contrast scholarly or peer-reviewed sources with Web sites that lack

credibility or have an obvious bias.
• Provide guided practice in ways to integrate information from their sources
into their own paper (quote, paraphrase, summarize, etc.).
• Encourage them by letting them know you think they could do better.
Deterring intentional plagiarism
Point out the penalties for plagiarism and stress that penalties are likely to be
even more severe in college.
• Make it clear that penalties for handing in a plagiarized paper are much
more severe than penalties for using the wrong margins or forgetting an
apostrophe.
• Emphasize the importance of learning to complete an honest written assign-
ment in high school as good preparation for college.
Share your knowledge about the paper mill sites, and Web sites and software
designed to help you catch plagiarism.
• Analyze a bad paper from a paper mill with your students. Use it to help
them identify the criteria of a good paper.
• Most of these papers are not very good, so critiquing one in class will
bring that home.
• Talk about the lack of any quality control when buying a paper without
seeing it first.
• Discuss the possibility that another student in your class might buy and
hand in the same paper.
Don't let the students write about "anything."
• Make the topic of the paper a response to a specific question, class topic,
or reading.
• Assign specific topics and change the topics each semester.
• When possible, make the topic a current one.
• Require current references. Most of the sources used in the papers from
paper mills are several years old.
Structure writing assignments to make plagiarism difficult or less necessary.
• Assign the paper and start the process early to avoid procrastination and
last-minute panic that can encourage plagiarism.
• Reduce the stakes. Instead of one large grade at the end of the project,
grade each part of the paper as it is developed.
• Require that drafts be handed in as they are written and provide feedback
on each.
• Give them opportunities to learn and practice summarization and para-
phrasing.
Conclusion
Collaboration is essential to preventing plagiarism. Tackling the problem re-
quires the cooperation of teachers, administrators, librarians, parents, and stu-
dents. Only by working together can we hope to reach young people, to teach
them ethical ways, and to impress upon them the importance of trust: trust be-
tween teacher and student, student and parent, and student and student. It is not
just one person's responsibility.
Remember that many students don't plagiarize, and those who do plagiarize
hurt those who don't. It's our job to take actions that can help level the playing
field to make it fair to all.
Many of these ideas are developed more fully on the author's Electronic
Plagiarism Seminar Web page at www.lemoyne.edu/library/plagiarism/
index.htm. The seminar offers additional information and references on
detecting plagiarism, search strategies, definitions, instructional strategies,
policies and procedures, and a selective bibliography.
[Gretchen Pearson is the Public Services Librarian at the Noreen Reale Falcone Library at
Le Moyne College, Syracuse, NY. She is Copyright Officer for the College, and the campus
administrator for Turnitin.com. She conducts plagiarism workshops for college and high
school classes. She can be reached at pearson@lemoyne.edu.]
CHAPTER EIGHT
Pursuing Victory With Honor
/ can get an advantage by knowing the pressure points (pinching a nerve) so

I inflict pain, this isn't illegal. On the offense, I hurt him so he gives in. Coach
teaches us how to inflict pain to get an advantage. You win any way you can.
All the teams wrestle dirty. 10th grade boy
Do coaches teach illegal moves? Yes, virtually all of them at higher com-
petitive levels. They say, "Be a good sport, but win." High school parent
Youth sports are a vitally important factor in the lives of many students and
their parents. Young athletes are influenced by their coaches and teammates as
they develop their own ideas of what it means to be a "good sport" and what
"sportsmanship" involves. Too often, they are told to seek "victory with honor"
but hear a hidden message that "win at any cost" is the true goal.
These issues are addressed in the articles that make up this chapter. Michael
Josephson sets the tone with Victory With Honor. Robert Weinberg describes a
recent baseball season when he took a strong stand in favor of doing the honorable
thing even in the face of student and parent protests.
The Arizona Interscholastic Association established a statewide Pursuing Vic-
tory With Honor program in 1999. Chuck Schmidt describes the program and
provides a COPY ME page for other associations that might be interested in de-
veloping a similar program. The Pursuing Victory With Honor program at Sabino
High School in Tucson, Arizona, is described by Will Kreamer, and the program
at North Canyon High School in Phoenix, Arizona, is described by Scott Brown.
The chapter ends with words to his young gymnast daughter from Michael Jo-
sephson.
Support material and additional information about the national Pursuing Vic-
tory With Honor program is available from CHARACTER COUNTS! Sports.
There also is data on the results of the 2004 CHARACTER COUNTS! Sports-
manship Survey. These are online at www.charactercounts.org.
Resources
Articles:
Robert Weinberg: "Pursuing Victory With Honor at Sherman Oaks Center for En-
riched Studies"
Will Kreamer: "CATS WIN at Sabino High School"
Scott Brown: "Where Attention Goes—Energy Flows"
COPY ME pages:
Michael Josephson: "Victory With Honor"
Chuck Schmidt: "Pursuing Victory With Honor in Arizona Schools"
Pursuing Victory With Honor—Arizona Interscholastic Association
Michael Josephson: "What I Want My Daughter to Get Out of Sports"
COPY ME
Victory With Honor
Michael Josephson
Not everyone likes sports. Many think it's a waste of time or, at best, the toy
department of life. Yet, regardless of your personal views, it's unwise to underes-
timate the influence sports have on the quality and character of the American cul-
ture. The values of millions of participants and spectators, including their views
on what is permissible and proper in the competitive pursuit of all sorts of per-
sonal goals, are shaped by the values conveyed in sports.
In February 2002, the Josephson Institute hosted a summit meeting of many
of the most influential leaders in youth sports to develop standards and strategies
to improve the quality of the sports experience for youngsters 12 and under. A
lot of time was spent discussing bad sportsmanship, violent and abusive parent
behavior, and other negative trends that demean and diminish the reputation and
reality of kids' sports.
At the same time, many of us watched the Winter Olympics, a perfect back-
drop to our conference because the growing gap between the ideals of the Olym-
pics and some ugly realities of modern day competition parallels the mission drift
seen in youth sports.
One common thread is the distortion of the gallant and uplifting goals of ath-
letic competition into an unrestrained, obsessive, and unprincipled pursuit of per-
sonal glory and material gain.
Though the word competition is derived from the Latin word competere, which
embodies the idea of "striving together," even in a youth context competitors are
commonly viewed as enemies. Instead of striving for personal excellence and
pursuing victory with honor, modern soldiers of sport want to win so badly that
they shamelessly engage in aggressive, hostile, disrespectful, and dishonest be-
haviors.
The solution is so easy to articulate but so hard to achieve. All we have to
do is take to heart the Olympic Creed: "The most important thing is not to win
but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph, but
the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered, but to have fought
well."
All youth sports programs can have a greater positive impact if they have the
courage and integrity to pursue a child-centered mission: give kids a safe envi-
ronment in which they have fun, build character, learn to practice sportsmanship
and develop skills and traits that help them become responsible citizens and live
happy, healthy lives.
Striving to win is an important aspect of competition but youth sports is not
primarily about winning; it's about learning through effort and improvement. You
149
see, kids like to win; but it's the adults who distort the experience because of their
need to win. The fact is, with positive coaching, all the values of sport, including
enjoyment and a sense of accomplishment, can be derived from the passionate
pursuit of victory, regardless of the outcome.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that CHARACTER COUNTS!
[Based on Michael Josephson's radio addresses on Feb. 11, 2002, and Dec. 9, 2002.
Reprinted with permission from the Josephson Institute of Ethics. An archive of radio
150
at Sherman Oaks Center
for Enriched Studies
Robert Weinberg
The Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies is a grades 4-12 Magnet school
in the Los Angeles Unified School District. We draw our 1,800 students from
all over the enormous school district; 800 are in our high school. Our mandated
ethnicity level of 60% minority and 40% Caucasian makes us diverse ethnically
and socioeconomically, so we qualify as a Title I school.
We also are a very successful school academically, being ranked in the top 10
percent of schools in our district and state. We have a culture of high expecta-
tions and high success, both academically and in character development. Our
school and local district have been CHARACTER COUNTS! and Pursuing Vic-
tory With Honor schools for more than four years.
Our interscholastic program offers most of the sports possible for boys and
girls, except wrestling and football. Because of our size, and sharing students
with other activities, the size of our teams is typically not large. This means that
all students who go out for a sport really get quality playing time. We have been
very successful in our league events, but usually struggle in playoffs against
much larger teams.
Pursuing Victory With Honor is a natural progression of CHARACTER
COUNTS! We meet with our athletes at the beginning of each season to discuss
expectations and talk about the kinds of situations they will confront throughout
the season. We ask them to think about their decisions and actions as they repre-
sent their school, their families, and themselves. We ask parents to sign a pledge
that indicates their responsibilities as parents and spectators.
During the spring 2004 season, our baseball team had a strong record of 14-0
going into the last two games. Of the 12 players on the team, 4 were seniors. The
next-to-last game happened to take place on the same day as our Senior Picnic.
The senior baseball players were told by several staff members that transporta-
tion back to school would be provided so they would be on time to start the
game. The opposing team traveled 25 miles to find our school with only eight
players; the seniors chose to stay at the picnic. We had to forfeit to a team we had
defeated 35-5 earlier in the season.
The coach and assistant principal talked to the team after this, with a focus
on sportsmanship and the importance of every game. The final game of our
season came on the same day as the Senior Talent Show. History repeated itself
when the seniors were too busy with jobs or getting ready for the talent show
that night to show up for the game. Again, we had to forfeit a game.
Knowing we would be awarded a bid to the playoffs, the coach, assistant
principal, and I discussed what had happened. We decided that, based on the
poor character of the seniors on the team, we should decline the playoff bid. In
all my years as a coach or administrator, working for victories and ultimately
a shot in the playoffs had been the goal; now I knew there was a bigger issue
at stake.
Declining a playoff bid had never been done in our district and even staff
from the district's athletics office questioned our decision. When a front-page
article appeared in the Los Angeles Times, three of the seniors' angry parents
came to meet with me. After more than two hours of hearing their concerns, I
informed them that if I had to make the decision again, I would decide the same
way. We met with the team and, to my disgust, the four seniors said the two
teams we had forfeited to didn't deserve another chance to play us. Fortunately,
the rest of our school community supported our decision. E-mails and letters
from all over the country overwhelmingly applauded a decision in favor of
integrity and purpose over brashness and lack of commitment.
Schools implementing the Pursuing Victory With Honor program should
realize that the administrators, coaches, and parents must support the program.
They must talk to kids about the real-life issues and the decisions that will con-
front them. Otherwise, they may not get the results they want in the areas of
integrity, fair play, and appreciation for the love of sport and competition.
At athletic competitions the administrators, teachers, and parents must step
forward with action to stop taunting, poor sportsmanship, and badmouthing of
the officials, opposing players, or coaches. Adults who don't outwardly and
strongly oppose such behavior have just endorsed it by nonaction.
Each of you must model the behaviors you want, even if the costs are high
and often unpopular or difficult. Only in this way are you and your teams truly
Pursuing Victory With Honor.
Pursuing Victory With Honor 153
School: Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies

District: Los Angeles Unified School District
City, State: Tarzana, California
Principal: Robert S. Weinberg
Grades: 4-12
Enrollment: 1,786
Faculty: 70
Web site: soces.lausd.kl2.ca.us
[Robert S. Weinberg has been Principal at Sherman Oaks CES for five years. He was in-
ducted into the LAUSD Football Hall of Fame for his play at Monroe High School and San
Fernando Valley State College (1968 Junior Rose Bowl). In education for over 34 years as
a teacher, football and track coach, athletic director, assistant principal, and principal, he is
very proud not only of his student-athletes who have gone on to become All Americans, All
Pro, and Olympic Gold Medalists, but all of the other great students and athletes, especially
those in his only losing season in 1983 at Taft High School, when the team went 0-10 and
showed great courage, passion, and love of the game.]
COPY ME
Pursuing Victory With Honor in Arizona Schools
Chuck Schmidt
The Arizona Interscholastic Association (AIA) is a nonprofit volunteer organiza-

tion of 239 member schools in Arizona. It serves as the statewide governing body
for interscholastic athletics and activities.
The Pursuing Victory With Honor initiative is a voluntary effort established
in 1999 on behalf of AIA schools in Arizona. AIA has conducted face-to-face
trainings for administrators and coaches at the high school level, and for students
involved in the interscholastic experience and their parents.
In planning to develop a Pursuing Victory With Honor program, it is important
to focus on what will work in your school and community. Each local program
will be different, but success for each depends on having "buy-in" and strong sup-
port from the School Board and the community.
Work with your coaches, teachers, administrators, parents, and students to
identify the issues. Emphasize the role played by the coaches in the total educa-
tional process, not just in the sports arena. Then create an initiative that helps to
teach young people to make healthy lifestyle choices.
The focus must be on Pursuing, more on the journey rather than just on the
destination. The educational process that occurs within that experience will pro-
vide far-ranging results, victories that can be measured on and off the field.
[Chuck Schmidt is Assistant Executive Director of the Arizona Interscholastic Association,

7007 N. 18th Street, Phoenix, AZ 85020, www.aiaonline.org.]
154
COPY ME
Arizona InterscholasticAssociation
Throughout its history, the Arizona Interscholastic Association and its member
schools have used educational athletics as a vehicle to teach life lessons related
to the promotion of healthy lifestyles and character development. Recognizing the
many challenges facing modern-day interscholastic athletics, the AIA introduced its
signature Pursuing Victory With Honor program in 1999 to assist all invested parties
in maintaining and promoting the integrity and educational value of athletics.
Mission Statement
The AIA Pursuing Victory With Honor initiative will create an environment in
Arizona where the student-athletes, coaches, officials, and spectators are committed
to Pursuing Victory With Honor and teamwork through TRUSTWORTHINESS,
RESPECT, RESPONSIBILITY, FAIRNESS, CARING, AND CITIZENSHIP.
Objectives
• To develop a comprehensive, pervasive and sustaining AIA Pursuing
Victory With Honor initiative, through the framework of the Arizona Ac-
cord.
• To establish character development expectations for the AIA student-
athletes, coaches, administrators, and spectators involved in AIA athlet-
ics and activities.
• To develop standards of accountability for all AIA member schools, stu-
dent-athletes, coaches, administrators, and spectators.
• To implement a program of assessment and accountability of the AIA
Pursuing Victory With Honor initiative for all participating AIA member
schools.
• To incorporate community outreach as a part of a character development
outreach for youth sports and activities.
• To establish a clearinghouse of information and research for member
schools to affect character traits, educate people on character principals,
and develop initiatives for character education.
Information on AIA programs is online at: www.aiaonline.org
155
CATS WIN at Sabino High School
Will Kreamer
Sabino High School is a 4a comprehensive high school with an enrollment of ap-

proximately 1,635. We graduated 96 percent of our students last year and 94 per-
cent go on to a university, college, or junior college. Last year Sabino was one of
only two high schools in the Tucson area designated "Excelling" by the Arizona
Department of Education.
Pursuing Victory With Honor is being implemented primarily in our CATS WIN
program. We are the Sabercats and CATS WIN was originally developed at Sa-
bino to battle the drug, alcohol, and tobacco problems that most high schools in the
United States face. Over the last two years we have participated in the Pursuing Vic-
tory With Honor program that emphasizes sportsmanship for our players, coaches,
and parents.
One feature of the CATS WIN program at Sabino is CATS WIN Night. This
is a mandatory evening meeting during the first week of school for all students in
activities and sports. The meeting also is mandatory for all coaches, parents, and
sponsors. We have a standing-room only crowd each year. The meeting usually
lasts less than an hour. Our keynote speaker this year was Josh Pastner, assistant
coach for the University of Arizona basketball team—he was terrific.
The rest of the evening is an introduction to the CATS WIN program and what
it entails. We review CHARACTER COUNTS! and the Six Pillars of Character.
We also added a parent component this year. In return for signing a pledge sheet
agreeing to be a model of sportsmanship and good character, each parent received
a Pursuing Victory With Honor t-shirt with our school name and logo on it. They
loved it.
During the presentation, the CATS WIN student pledge sheet is introduced
with a discussion of the consequences if the pledge is broken. This pledge sheet
is the first page in their sports packet, which is filled out prior to the season and
students are not eligible to participate until it has been completed. The main pre-
sentation is followed by break-out sessions when students and parents interested

in each sport or activity meet with the coach or sponsor in predetermined class-
rooms. The coaches discuss the CATS WIN message and how they will address
it. For a student and parent who could not make CATS WIN Night, we offer two
make-up sessions later in the year.
In addition to CATS WIN Night, we have a number of other activities in place.
The Athletic Director and I meet with each team prior to competition to remind
them of our emphasis on CHARACTER COUNTS! and Pursuing Victory With
Honor.
Each season an athlete is voted Player of the Year for CHARACTER COUNTS!
Our PTSA takes the winning athletes out for lunch. Our faculty infuses the Six
Pillars of CHARACTER COUNTS! into their curriculum and it is part of their
evaluation. They also choose a Student of the Month to be taken to lunch. This
helps to develop the program with our entire student body.
We are developing a "Gold Day" when teams go in force and cheer for their
classmates in other sports, ones they ordinarily might not attend. This increases
solidarity and sportsmanship on campus, another goal of Pursuing Victory With
Honor.
The CATS WIN program at Sabino High School is one that stresses Pursuing
Victory With Honor in all of our sports activities. Our student athletes commit to
the program and to its principles in their athletic endeavors and also in their daily
lives.
School: Sabino High School

District: Tucson Unified School District
City, State: Tucson, Arizona
Principal: Valerie Payne
Assistant Principal for Activities: Will Kreamer
Grades: 9-12
Enrollment: 1,708
Faculty: 80
Web site: edweb.tusd.kl2.az.us/Sabino
[Will Kreamer is Assistant Principal for Activities at Sabino High School, Tucson, AZ. A
PowerPoint presentation about the CATS WIN Pursuing Victory With Honor program is
online at www.sabinohighschool.com.]
Where Attention G o e s -
Energy Flows
Scott Brown
When I accepted the position of Athletic Director at North Canyon High School,
my philosophy was "where attention goes—energy flows." By this I mean that if
you give kids a sense of ownership and make them feel as though they are a part
of the program, they will have pride in that program. By rewarding the positive
behaviors, you encourage others to parrot those behaviors.
At North Canyon we have immense social, economic, and cultural diversity.
This idea works to bridge all of those barriers. We have a group called Athletic
Club whose members volunteer their time to work at games outside their own
sport. This encourages different sports to support each other, something I feel is
crucial.
When the Arizona Interscholastic Association adopted the Pursuing Victory
With Honor concept, it helped to reinforce what was already in place here and
gave us the opportunity to expand it in new directions. This same idea is now
being applied to parents. We are implementing a policy that rewards the parents
who show positive behavior and support at competitions, and encourages them to
model that behavior for other parents who are caught up in negative actions. The
bottom line is this, Pursuing Victory With Honor at North Canyon High School
means that good choices have good rewards, and bad choices have bad conse-
quences.
Our students agree:

"I feel like students come first at North Canyon. Being a part of sports and
Athletic Club has given me a second home. It is so obvious how great the commu-
nication lines are when athletes come to the AD's office just to hang out."
"I'm glad I got a chance to help start the Athletic Club with Mr. Brown. Ath-
letic Club is the only club on campus where the members work hard to make
visiting schools and officials feel welcome. Too often students think they need
to show they're better than an opposing school with negative behavior—Athletic
Club shows that being positive and kind is a better way."
"I am involved in several clubs at North Canyon, but Athletic Club is the only
one that makes me feel as though I'm helping make my school a better place. The
coaches at North Canyon really care about each athlete, and Mr. Brown always
has time to hear anything we might want to say."
School: North Canyon High School

District: Paradise Valley Unified School District
City, State: Phoenix, Arizona
Principal: Carol Pollack
Athletic Director: Scott Brown
Grades: 9-12
Enrollment: 2,451
Faculty: 120
Web site: northcanyon.pvusd.kl2.az.us
[Scott Brown is Athletic Director at North Canyon High School, Phoenix, AZ.]
COPY ME
What I Want My Daughter to Get Out of Sports

Michael Josephson
My six-year-old daughter is about to enter her first gymnastics competition.

I've never seen her more energized or focused and it both pleases and wor-
ries me. So here's a note I intend to read and explain to her:
My dearest Carissa, I hope you win but I want you to understand that the
real purpose of sports is not to win but to experience satisfaction and joy in
the competition itself.
I want you to love the sport so much that you can have fun, feel good about
yourself and learn important life lessons no matter the outcome.
I want you to set goals and work hard at getting better but when things
don't go well, I want you to be tough and tenacious, never giving up or
giving in.
I want you to pursue self-improvement and victory with passion but I want
you to do so for the pleasure and sense of accomplishment it gives you and
not to please me or your mom or to get the approval of others.
I want you always to conduct yourself in a way that brings honor to your
team, your coaches, your family and, above all, yourself.
I want you to be a model of good sportsmanship, treating teammates, op-
ponents and officials with the utmost respect, resisting temptations to brag,
argue, accuse or whine.
I want you to respect the sport and the letter and spirit of the rules that define
it by avoiding cheap gamesmanship tactics and all forms of cheating.
And, most of all, I want you to know how proud of you I am.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that CHARACTER COUNTS! [Jan.
9, 2003]
[Based on Michael Josephson's radio address on Jan. 9, 2003. Reprinted with permission
from the Josephson Institute of Ethics. An archive of radio addresses is online at www.char-
actercounts.org. Michael Josephson is founder and President/CEO of the Josephson Institute
of Ethics, sponsor of CHARACTER COUNTS! online at www.josephsoninstitute.org.]
160
Part III
INTEGRITY IN
THE WRITING PROCESS
CHAPTER NINE
Moving from Plagiarism to

Integrity in the Writing Process
It's easy to use papers from the Internet. 7th grade girl
The only thing that I do is that I copy and paste off the internet, when I write
a report. It's easier and even when I try to put a sentence I like into my own
words it still sounds like the original which is still considered cheating. 12th
grade girl
I have done it [plagiarize] because teachers never take the time to check
our sources. 9th grade boy
Half the class copy some or all of their papers from the Internet and half
write their own papers. It's harder to plagiarize now because you have to
cite your sources, what books you used and what library you found them in,
or what web sites you used. 12th grade girl
Students today write their papers on computers using automatic spelling and
grammar checkers, citation format programs, and online access to the vast world
of electronic information. Our responsibility is to help them locate and evaluate
the information they need, and then use these new tools effectively in the writing
process.
It is especially important that we offer thoughtful feedback on their papers.
Students must believe their paper was valued, appreciated, and evaluated fairly.
This validates the importance of a writing assignment that might otherwise be
viewed as busywork.
The best anti-plagiarism strategy is good teaching with a focus on the

writing process
Good teaching accomplishes two important goals: It helps honest students
avoid unintentional plagiarism, and it makes pleading ignorance more dif-
ficult for a student who plagiarizes intentionally.
Grading the research process as well as the research product, or paper, is the
most effective anti-plagiarism technique. This requires that each student produce
all or at least most of these: a topic or question, outline, note cards, preliminary
bibliography, one or more rough drafts, photocopies of book pages quoted or
paraphrased, copies of pages downloaded from the Internet and the Web address
of each, final draft, annotated bibliography that identifies where each resource
was located, final paper, and a written reflection piece on the research process.
Students can be required to turn in each of these parts at specified times through-
out the research and writing process.
Although it might take a little longer during the semester to teach, monitor, and
correct a research process with an assignment completed in parts, final grading will
go more quickly because much of the paper was graded earlier. Instead of one large
grade, students have many small grades to show they have done the work them-
selves. The research paper is still important but has become only one part of learn-
ing the entire research process.
You might invite students to make a one-paragraph response to your comments
on their papers. Students can appreciate your comments, dispute your opinion
of the paper, or even argue for a better grade. You then answer each student's
response. In some cases, it may even be appropriate to change a grade in response
to a student's well-reasoned and persuasive argument (Josephson 2004).
A strong emphasis on, and grading of, the research process may lead many
students to decide that plagiarism is more trouble than actually writing the paper.
Such grading makes it almost impossible to substitute a paper from an online
paper mill. A few paper mills now offer to provide copies of cited articles for an
added fee but they still do not provide all of the many "bits and pieces" required.
The "Research Portfolio Cover Sheet" COPY ME page can document the re-
awarch process for each assignment; copiues kept in thewriting portfolio cam track
a student's research over the years.
What is your goal in making research assignments?

Obviously our students are not going to reveal any startling new developments in
world affairs. Nor are they are likely to offer new insights into scientific theories or other
fields of learning. So why require reports or term papers or research assignments?
The answer is that students need to learn to read, analyze what they have
read, and explain it clearly. A research assignment should help students learn
to formulate a question or problem, identify and locate the information needed,
evaluate and organize the relevant information, and then report their findings.
Finally, they should reflect on the research process and what they have learned.
Moving from Plagiarism to Integrity in the Writing Process 165
The teacher's role is to guide, inspire, and support students as they master the
skills required. Students are to learn the process and perform each step correctly
and with honesty. Students are more likely to complete writing assignments with
integrity when they consider them to be important. Thus, it is important that the
instructional goals and value of each assignment be clearly stated.
It is easy to forget how inexperienced and unprepared our students are when
it comes to writing a formal paper based on their own "research." We make it
easier for students to complete writing assignments without plagiarizing when
we teach and re-teach the skills they need.
How can we develop absolutely Plagiarism-Proofassignments?

It canf be done. The determined student will pay a friend or paper mill to cre-
ate an original assignment, talk a parent into writing it, use an old paper from a
sibling, copy from some obscure print source, or find another way to avoid the
actual writing.
What you can do is to emphasize and grade the research process. Hold stu-
dents accountable for all the incremental "bits and pieces" that are due at spe-
cific dates across the semester. Check that they have mastered the variety of
skills demanded for success and understand the importance of these skills. This
approach yields educational benefits and can, in many cases, make plagiarism
simply not worth the bother.
The authors of the articles that follow share their experiences and offer a wide
range of perspectives on the prevention of plagiarism. All except the first two are
formatted as COPY ME pages to use with students, faculty, or parents.
References
Michael Josephson, interview, August 26, 2004.
Resources
Articles:
Gary M. Galles: "Simple Strategies for Combating Plagiarism"
Greg Van Belle: "How Cheating Helps Drive Better Instruction"
COPY ME pages:
Tom Rocklin: "Plagiarism, Trust, and Fraud"
Rebecca Howard: "Plagiarism: What Should a Teacher Do?"
Alexandra Babione: "Plagiarism: How to Avoid It"
Robert Harris: "When There's a Questions of Plagiarism..."
How to Protect Yourself from an Accusation of Plagiarism
Research Portfolio Cover Sheet
Library Research Checklist
24/7 Online Library Services

A "Research Night Out" for Parents
School Library Web Sites That Support Integrity in Student Writing
Plagiarism Web Sites for Educators
Identifying a Plagiarized Paper—Not As Simple As It Sounds
Online Sites for Reports and Research Papers
Carol Simpson: "Copyright and Plagiarism Guidelines for Students" and "The Im-
portance of a Copyright Policy"
Sources of Information on Copyright Policy
ISTE National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) Project
the Internet Era: A Wake-Up Call: Chapters 3, 13, 14, and 17.
Simple Strategies
for Combating Plagiarism
Gary M. Galles
Since writing is, in essence, formalized thinking, the educational purpose of writ-
ing assignments is for students to master the process of organizing and disciplin-
ing their thoughts about a topic. Therefore, the most productive approach to such
assignments is with intense teacher involvement throughout a paper's develop-
ment, with each stage subject to comments and suggested changes. That approach
would also minimize plagiarism possibilities.
Unfortunately, class sizes and time constraints typically preclude the level of
teacher involvement needed for such a "hands-on" approach, which opens the
door for a vast range of Internet-fed plagiarism possibilities. However, there are
some simple assignment strategies that can help reduce those possibilities, with-
out hindering the learning we wish to take place or unduly burdening teachers.
Sources
Rather than the usual list of references, an annotated bibliography with a syn-
opsis of each reference could be required. Similarly, references could be required
to be photocopied or printed from the Web site, with the relevant sections high-
lighted and turned in with the paper. Preparing an abstract of every cited paper
and Web site could be part of the assignment. Each would force students to do
research for themselves and make plagiarism far more difficult.
Papers could require the inclusion of a few assigned sources, which is particu-
larly effective if some are very recent, because that combination rules out most
online papers. For some assignments, all references could be restricted to holdings
in the school library, to the same end. First-person voice or applications could be
required, since that would be unavailable from other sources. More in-class writing
can also be used.
Assignments
Assignments could include a student description or journal of their research
process, particularly how and where the utilized sources were found, making it
extremely difficult to "defend" the use of other people's work. Further, each paper
could require a personally conducted interview, survey, or experiment, which
would preclude the use of already written papers.
Papers shorter than six pages (shorter than most available purchased papers) can
be assigned. This trains students to be concise rather than to pad papers to reach
longer length requirements and also reduces the time required for teachers to grade
the papers. Topics that are idiosyncratic to a particular class or restricted to current
events, and unlikely to be available on the Internet, can also be assigned. This is espe-
cially effective if direct references to in-class discussions are part of the assignment.
Presentations
Graded oral presentations of papers, with students required to answer ques-
tions and defend their arguments, would force students to learn their material
better and give them valuable experience speaking in front of others. This also
dramatically reduces the payoff to using someone else's work. Assigning papers
on opposing views of a topic, with the writers debating the subject in front of the
class, also requires that students know their material thoroughly.
Plagiarism is both unethical and subversive of the huge investment America
makes in education. At a time when more than half of both high school and col-
lege students have admitted to cheating on surveys and plagiarism possibilities
are always just a keystroke away, we need to take it seriously. These strategies,
some of which can be utilized for writing assignments in any class, are steps in
that direction that do not require bigger school budgets or onerous impositions on
teachers.
[Gary M. Galles is Professor of Economics at Pepperdine University.]

How Cheating Helps
Drive Better Instruction
Greg Van Belle
Cheating, and specifically the time-honored act of plagiarism, has been receiving
a good deal of attention in education circles of late. The rise of the Internet as a
virtual paper mill has tuned educators in to the fact that students, when given the
chance, will often resort to dishonest measures in order to get high marks in a
course. Many of my colleagues have reacted very strongly to the rise of Internet
cheating. Some have strengthened their policies on the matter, others have added
new paragraphs to their syllabi addressing the issue directly, and still others have
been spending hours online trying to find any paper they believe to be pilfered
from a source other than the student's brain.
I question this type of reaction. In fact, as an educator and a scholar interested
in curriculum development and instructional methods, I welcome the new chal-
lenge of creating "cheat-proof course materials. Because of my perspective on
this issue, I am often the lone voice in opposition to tougher, "zero-tolerance"
policies on academic dishonesty. Instead I would like to turn to the faculty and
present this issue not as a problem deserving reactionary policies, but as an invita-
tion to rethink our course content, how we present material to our students, and
how we assess what we teach.
What follows are some simple measures we can all put into place to help slow
the flood of plagiarized work.
Rotate the curriculum

Many of us teach the same class repeatedly throughout the academic year. It
is a good idea to develop two essay assignments, each with a unique twist, and
rotate them. This small measure is often enough to discourage cheating. Clearly,
the more variety you have the better. This has the side benefit of keeping your
preparation and instruction vitalized. Keeping the curriculum fresh helps keep
students and teachers interested.
Build process-orientedassignments
Simply asking that your students provide concrete evidence of the process of
their work is sufficient to stop "cut and paste" or paper mill cheaters. Create small,
specific in-class exercises that provide evidence of the writing process. This can
be as simple as asking the entire class to spend five minutes writing a summary of
their argument. Don't wait until after the assignment is turned in.
Write original assignments

Take a moment to browse the paper mills and one thing becomes apparent: the
variety of available work is not great. Write assignments that ask students to look
at old materials in new ways, or write assignments that address new works. Ask-
ing students to write about the "hero syndrome" as it is portrayed in Hemingway's
The Sun Also Rises will likely net you some stolen papers. Add a twist. Add an
autobiographical element to the essay in which students have to relate the litera-
ture to their own lives.
Assign unique readings

Students have to read the classics, but in addition to the standards why not as-
sign modern readings? Look outside of the anthologies and collections. Even in
most standard texts there are ignored or forgotten pieces of literature. Look there
for sources of original, thought-provoking essays.
Consider other assessments

I am not going to suggest that writing isn't important or that we should aban-
don composition as a demonstration of critical thinking ability, but by balancing
this against project-based learning you can at least know that the student has to do
some original thinking. Such an approach makes sense even if it clashes with our
classical aesthetic. Students often resort to cheating because they can, not because
they have to. It is very hard to cheat on a group project or an artistic response.
Working in peer groups also has a deterrent effect on cheaters. Conscientious
students will often let you know if they think a classmate is not doing his or her
own work.
Keep a file
I always assign an in-class, diagnostic essay in the first week of class, which I
use for two purposes. One is purely diagnostic to help decide how much attention
Moving from Plagiarism to Integrity in the Writing Process 171
I need to pay to grammar and mechanics. The other is to begin a file on each stu-
dent. Before I return subsequent essays I photocopy the first page of every one and
add it to the file. By the end of the term I have a running record of the students'
growth and change. I don't do this to catch cheaters (that is merely a byproduct
of my efforts). I use it as a piece of the assessment for the class. Once grades are
posted I typically recycle these files unless I suspect there will be a problem later
on.
Be proactive in policy and procedure

At the beginning of every term I walk my students to the computer lab where
we search the Internet and school network for helpful sites related to the course
material. In this demonstration I also show them the 10 most popular cheating
sites. More than one student has commented that this let them know that I was
"with it" and that cheating in my class wouldn't be the best gamble to make. Other
instructors hand out a list of cheating sites with their syllabus.
Write a clear, concise statement on academic dishonesty. Be sure this policy
is consistent with school policies and guidelines, and be sure you can enforce
whatever you decide on. There is nothing wrong with telling students that you
punish cheaters.
Conclusion
I have found that the perceived increase in student cheating has helped my
teaching. Rather than resort to policing my classes for the dishonest, I have taken
on the challenge of creating assignments that will challenge the honest, hard-
working student and will ultimately deter the student with a tendency toward
cheating. Even at large schools, students talk. They know which teachers won't
put up with anything less than honesty.
Ultimately I have decided that I want to reward the honest student rather than
spend my time punishing the dishonest student. I challenge you to use the threat
of academic dishonesty as the fuel to revitalize your instruction, assignments, and
assessments.
[Greg Van Belle, Department of English, Edmonds Community College, gvanbell@edcc.

edu]
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Plagiarism, Trust, and Fraud
Tom Rocklin
For me a dictionary definition of plagiarism obscures the key issue we confront

when we discuss plagiarism in the context of academic integrity. The dictionary
definition and common usage of the word plagiarism conflate two transgressions:
theft and fraud. Certainly, I want my students to commit neither theft nor fraud in
their academic work (or, for that matter, in other areas of their lives), but when a
student turns in a plagiarized paper, it is the fraud that chiefly concerns me.
Whether a student has stolen a paper or obtained it "honestly" by purchasing it
or receiving it as a gift, if the student didn't write the paper and purports to have
written it, that student has engaged in academic misconduct. In fact, the fraud
that the student has committed is a specific instance of the unifying element in all
academic misconduct. I propose that academic misconduct occurs when a student
misrepresents his or her engagement in one or more activities designed to promote
learning.
Certainly, much of the plagiarism students commit is also theft. However, a lot
of our students demonstrate that they don't consider ideas and/or the expression
of those ideas to be private property when they reproduce music (and increasingly
movies) for which they don't own the appropriate rights. Even students who do
recognize a general theory of intellectual property might have a hard time seeing
the use of a few paragraphs of another's words as theft. The value we assign to
giving credit to the originator of an idea is not completely foreign to our students,
but it certainly isn't particularly well articulated in their minds.
On the other hand, discussing plagiarism as fraud puts the issue of student
learning at the center of the discussion. Such a discussion puts us in a good posi-
tion to make the case that the steps we take to help them avoid plagiarism are steps
taken to enhance student learning.
This way of thinking about plagiarism as fraud has changed the way I want
to talk with students about plagiarism. In addition, I am beginning to think that I
should go further and more consistently down a path I have sometimes taken with
students. Instead of thinking in terms of "write a term paper" as the assignment
with the paper itself being the product, I am considering thinking (and speaking
with students) in terms of assigning various learning activities.
The final written product, "the paper," will be only one part of the grade for the
entire process. For example, I might want students to read opposing viewpoints
on a current topic of environmental policy and then identify strengths and weak-
nesses in the arguments of both side. Grading the process as well as the product
allows me to evaluate the effects of the students' engagement in all of the associ-
ated learning activities.
Once I have described an assignment in terms of the activities in which I want
my students to engage (and the kinds of learning I think will result from that en-
gagement), it seems natural to consider the kind of support they will need to be
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successful in the activities. Maybe they need examples, or a demonstration, or a
handout with suggested steps. Perhaps I can provide students with a checklist or
other guidance so that they can evaluate their work before turning it in. When I
conceptualize the assignment as "write a paper," it's hard to imagine what specific
support I should provide. When I've thought through the more specific activities
that the paper is meant to document, it gets easier.
Providing that sort of support is my side of the educational alliance. When
students do their own work with diligence, they are upholding their side of the
educational alliance. It is only in the context of this alliance that we can expect
learning to flourish.
[Tom Rocklin, College of Education, University of Iowa. Adapted with permission from
"Plagiarism, Trust and Fraud" online at www.uiowa.edu/~centeach/talk/volume6/plagia-
rism.html.]
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Plagiarism: What Should a Teacher Do?
Rebecca Moore Howard
You're in your office, you're in front of the t.v., you're holed up in the library with
that well-known stack of papers—and you get that sinking feeling that something
is very wrong with the paper you're reading. What do you do?
The first thing you can do is try to shake off the word plagiarism. It is time to
think like a teacher, not like a judge. The high likelihood is that the situation is
a purely pedagogical one, best remedied by your contact with the student rather
than your frantic, tiresome search through the library or the Internet. Yes, you
may have a cynical, unethical, fraudulent student in your class. Start, though, by
investigating the more probable hypothesis: you have an unfinished learner in
your class.
Sit down with the student and talk to her frankly about the paper. Be honest.
Tell her that you were concerned as you read the paper. Ask her how it was com-
posed, under what conditions, with what sorts of assistance—whether from other
writers or from texts.
If the student knows that you are trying to understand her writing process and
not catch her in the act, you are likely to get a frank response. And you are likely to
discover that the student may have known she was transgressing (or may not have),
but that the "transgression" was caused by her lack of understanding and skill. You
are likely to find her perfectly willing to work some more on the task, under your
guidance. Finally, you are very likely to feel, once it's all done, that you have actu-
ally taught a student more about how to learn and how to interact with source texts
and readers.
I do not mean to suggest that we should not call to account those who submit
papers under their own names that were written by others. I only mean to suggest
that we are all victims if we allow the false umbrella term plagiarism to confuse
us about disparate textual activities and to stampede us out of the classroom when
it is a student's level of learning and not his level of ethics that is at issue. Let's
keep fraud in the judicial arena, plagiarism and citation in the pedagogical arena.
And let's keep our heads on our shoulders.
[Adapted with permission of the author. © 2001 Rebecca Moore Howard, Syracuse Uni-
versity. Presented at the Conference on College Composition and Communication, Denver,
Colorado, 17 March 2001. The entire paper is online at wrt-howard.syr.edu/Papers/Syra-
cuse/ AddressSU04.htm.]
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Plagiarism: How to Avoid It
Alexandra Babione
Some student scenarios

"Oh, I like the way the author expresses his ideas," you think as you read an
article. "I'll just make some notes for my paper." You begin to copy the text but
you forget to include quotation marks or some vital information such as title of
the article, author, title of the publication, or date of the publication. Perhaps you
do include the author and title of the article. But when you begin writing your
paper, you include the notes you took and forget that these are exact phrases and
sentences copied from the article. You have plagiarized.
You have been citing several sources and have incorporated several phrases into
your own sentences. You think you have paraphrased, but you learn that your para-
phrase is too close to the original. You have plagiarized.
You don't have time or don't want to take the time to write a paper. Your room-
mate has written one on the topic for your assignment. You pass the "borrowed"
paper off as your own. You have plagiarized.
You think the author of a report or an article or an essay has said everything you
want to say, so you submit it as your own. You have plagiarized.
In the first two examples, the plagiarism was the result of carelessness and mis-
interpretation. In the latter two examples, the "borrowing" is considered stealing.
In all four examples, you have plagiarized.
What to do
Regardless of your intent, in each scenario you may be accused of plagiarizing
and subject to punishment. To avoid being accused of plagiarism and possibly of
fraud, you should follow some simple guidelines when you write your paper. Give
credit if you do any of the following:
• cite statistics, facts, dates, or any information that may not be known
commonly or that you did not know before doing research
• incorporate another person's theory, opinions, or beliefs that are not
yours
• quote someone exactly, word for word
• paraphrase another person's ideas, opinions, or information that may be
new to you
• want to demonstrate that you have researched the information
Yes, some ideas of your own may have been voiced before you have had a
chance to express yours. When you acknowledge that someone else has thought
as you do, you provide support for your ideas and opinions.
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Some tips
Here are a few tips to consider before writing your paper, while you engage in
research.
• Make sure you understand your teacher's definition and rules regarding
plagiarism. If you do not, ask for an explanation. Request examples.
• Learn to manage your materials and resources. As you collect them,
make sure to include quotation marks when you copy text exactly. Al-
ways add the information you will need later for your bibliography as
well as citations within your text.
• If you photocopy portions of information from printed material, be sure
to copy the page with the title, author, and publication information. If
this information is not found on one page, find it and write on the back or
top of the photocopy.
• Keep note cards of each citation, if this works for you. Some people
prefer to keep a running list of citations and provide summaries of each.
• If you use electronic databases and Web information, cut and paste each
citation into a word processing or notepad document and save to disk or
e-mail to yourself as an attachment. Print at least one page from each
online source to have as proof that you located the document yourself.
• Save a Web page to your disk. Some pages, particularly news pages,
change frequently. The page may not be available at a later date. When
you save a Web page to your disk, the URL is not saved unless it appears
somewhere within the document itself. Always copy the URL and paste
it either at the beginning or end of the article. Also note the date that you
accessed the page; you will need the date for your bibliography.
[This document is the result of a collaborative writing project by the students in Alexan-
dra Babione's English 102 class at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, © 2002.
The complete text is available at <www.siue.edu/ENGLISH/Resources/plagiarism_advice.
html>. All copies must include this statement.]
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When There's a Question of Plagiarism...

Robert Harris
It is sometimes said that the best plagiarism detector is the student who handed in the
paper, because he or she already knows whether or not the paper is genuine, or what
part is fraudulent. Therefore, you can sometimes enlist the student's help by discuss-
ing the paper and asking important questions without making any accusations. You
must be very careful about accusing a student of cheating unless you have clear proof;
a false accusation can be both cruel and reason for litigation. A student is always in-
nocent until all the facts have been examined and the student clearly is guilty.
One of the simplest approaches is to ask the student to come to your office after
school to discuss the paper in private. Be sure to keep a copy of the paper when
you return the original so you can refer to it during the interview. By asking the
right questions in the right way, you will often be successful in determining the
truth of the situation.
Before meeting with the student

• Review all district, school, and department policies on plagiarism.
• Review your class syllabus and any instructions you have given about
plagiarism.
• Take an "innocent-until-proven guilty" position. A previously lackadai-
sical student could become inspired by a topic that intrigues him or her.
• Even if the student is guilty, showing your regret and sadness for the
wrongdoing may have more effect than a righteous vindictive tone.
• Consider all the various levels of plagiarism; some are deliberate, some
due to lazy work habits, and still others due to ignorance.
• Gather all your evidence and secure it. Consider mailing a copy of any
electronic evidence to an off-campus location.
• Consider asking another teacher, a counselor, or an administrator to be
present at the meeting.
• Recognize the possibility that you may face parental pressure, including the
threat of a lawsuit, in response to any accusation you make.
Meeting with the student

• Ask the student to bring to the interview some of the books or magazines
used, or photocopies from the originals, and printouts from Web sites used.
• Treat the student with respect.
• Begin with a question such as, "Is there anything you want to say about your
term paper?" Then wait quietly for the student to respond.
• Ask questions rather than make accusations and be prepared for evasions
when the student answers. A student may respond better to a question on
"not citing," "using someone else's paper," or "copying" rather than to a
charge of cheating, stealing, or lying.
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• When it seems appropriate, read any applicable policies to the student.
• Be prepared for rationalizations and excuses. Keep your focus on the
paper and how it was developed or produced. Ask questions based on
the content of the paper and start a discussion of some minor point in the
paper.
Questions you may want to ask

• Did you write this paper?
• Did you cite every reference you used? (This can help to distinguish
between ignorance and intentionality).
• Don't these words need to have quotation marks around them?
• What search terms did you use? Which ones were most useful? Which
didn't help?
• What questions couldn't you answer, or what information did you need
that you weren't able to find?
• Where did you find most of these sources? In what library? On what Web
site? Say something like this: "The article by Edwards sounds interesting.
Can you bring a copy to me at our next meeting?"
• What was the most difficult part of the process for you? What was the
easiest?
• Are you familiar with the rules of paraphrasing and do you understand
that you must still cite a source even though you put the author's ideas
into your own words? (This may seem to imply that you have some evi-
dence to the contrary.)
• When did you begin to work on this paper?
• Did you have any help with editing and revising the paper?
• Where and when did you print the finished paper?
• I'm curious to know why your writing style is so good in some parts of
the paper and so poor in others. Why have you not shown such great
writing on the in-class essays?
• Ask questions about the content, questioning vocabulary choices or
phraseology: What exactly do you mean here by "dynamic equiva-
lence?"
• Have the student read one of the more difficult sections of the paper
aloud; few students use words they cannot pronounce. Ask the student to
explain the passage in his or her own words.
Penalty Phase
• Summarize the interview and ask the student for any comments he/she
may wish to make.
• Consider the nature of the offense. Was this the student's first act of
cheating as far as you know (it is helpful for a school to keep a master
file of cheating and plagiarism incidents). Was the plagiarism intentional
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and blatant, for example, handing in a paper copied in whole or in large
part from the Internet? Or was it unintentional, perhaps due to poor un-
derstanding of the rules of proper citation?
• Don't decide on the penalty immediately. You can tell the student you
want to think about the case and will reserve judgment a few days or a
week.
• Follow school, district, and departmental policies, rules, and guidelines.
• Consider the range of penalties available to you as well as rehabilitation
measures.
Put your final decision in writing and include your reasons for determining that
the student has, in fact, committed plagiarism. Specify whether, in your opinion,
the plagiarism was intentional or unintentional. Recommend an appropriate pen-
alty for intentional plagiarism, and perhaps an opportunity to rewrite the paper in
cases of unintentional plagiarism.
[Adapted with permission of the author and publisher from The Plagiarism Handbook by
Robert Harris (Pyrczak Publishing, 2001) and from "Anti-Plagiarism Strategies for Re-
search Papers" on the author's Web site at www.virtualsalt.com/antiplag.htm.]
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How to Protect Yourself from an Accusation of Plagiarism
Protect your work. You have spent many hours working on your term/research
paper. The hours you spent choosing a topic, narrowing or expanding it, hunting
for sources, taking notes, and finally writing the paper represent time you took
from watching TV, hanging out with your friends, playing video games, going to
the beach, or some other pleasurable activity. Your time and your thoughts are a
valuable commodity.
Don't give or sell your paper to anyone. Later on, in college, some of the ideas
you used in the paper you gave away or sold could now apply to a class you are
in. If you use these ideas and your original paper surfaces in an online paper mill,
you could be accused of plagiarism. Selling a paper is morally wrong; you are
assisting in intellectual fraud.
Report the loss of a stolen paper immediately. Talk to your teacher. Your re-
search portfolio on file with the teacher will help to support your allegation of
loss or theft.
Make copies of your sources. These copies show the original authors' words.
Your notes for the paper reflect your interpretation of what you thought was im-
portant in each source, stated in your own words. It is especially important to keep
downloads from the Internet Web sites; these Web sites often disappear and your
copy may be the only proof you have that a Web site ever existed.
Talk over your paper with your teacher. Discuss your progress and ask the
teacher to indicate problems on your rough drafts. If you discuss your paper with
other teachers or community experts, make written comments in the margins or
on your note cards. For example, a teacher who served in the Korean or Vietnam
wars may be able to give you some insight into post-combat stress, or a native
speaker of a language you are writing about may be able to offer suggestions.
Keep a research portfolio. Keep copies of everything related to your paper in
your portfolio. Photocopy your print sources, notes, note cards, rough drafts, and
even make a duplicate of your final copy. Keep copies of computer printouts from
home and from the libraries that you used while doing your research. These can
substantiate your claim that you did the research required for your paper and will
show the steps you took to complete the paper.
[Based on an idea from Using Sources Effectively, 2nd ed., by Robert Harris (Pyrczak Pub-
lishing, 2005). Additional material on plagiarism is online at the author's Web site, www.
virtualsalt.com.]
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Research Portfolio Cover Sheet
Student Name: Period:

Teacher:
Topic: Date due:
This sheet and the following items are to be included with the final paper.
(Any missing items will affect your cumulative final grade.)
Pre write due:
For 5-10 minutes you will be writing what you know about your topic already and explaining
what you would like to show or prove. Tell how you plan to investigate it.
Presearch of available materials due:
Presearch includes a check of the library holdings, a few searches on the Internet, and
perhaps a call to the local public library to check on the amount and type of information
available there. Documentation would be a list of several likely sources, note cards with
titles and call numbers, photocopies of some materials found with call numbers and library
location, printouts from the Internet, or similar materials.
Note cards due:
See writing handbook for note card format and style.
First draft due:
Second draft due:
Rough drafts of the paper will be required throughout the process. Drafts are checked for
style andformat as well as content. Each new draft is expected to show significant progress
in the work accomplished.
Draft of working bibliography due:
This is due prior to the actual due date of the paper in order to check for format and
content. Several class visits to the library will be scheduled, but some work may have to
be done using local public libraries and university libraries. A list of local libraries with
phone numbers and hours is available in the library.
Defending your paper:
After your paper has been turned in you may be called on to discuss it in class. Be prepared
to explain your topic, defend your conclusions, and describe where you found your sources
and where in the paper the sources were used.
Reflections on the research process:
This can be in the form of a diary or log and should document your search strategies, suc-
cesses and frustrations, and the "ah-ha" moments in your research process. Turn it in with
your paper.
Parent signature: Date:
(For any questions about the assignment, please call or e-mail me at: )
Reprinted with permission of the authors: Guiding Students from Cheating and Plagiarism to Honesty
and Integrity: Strategies for Change, by Ann Lathrop and Kathleen Foss (Libraries Unlimited, 2005).
Permission is granted to make print copies for class instruction, discussion groups, workshops, con-
ferences, or newsletters. This material must not be placed on a Web site or distributed in any digital
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Library Research Checklist
We have to bring in notecards, an outline, a rough draft, and a final paper

with a sources list in the format set by the teacher. We pick our topic from
a list of 100. Writing the paper in class will make it harder to plagiarize.
Make students get started, don't leave it till the last minute. 11th grade girl
When taking precious class time for library research, it is essential to make
sure the students are using the time for research instead of doing homework, visit-
ing with classmates, or using chat sites and instant messaging. If this is a day with
a substitute, it easily can become a totally free period for most of the class.
It is important to have an "end-of-period" check on student work in the library.
This could be a list of sources that have been retrieved or a short paragraph of
what was learned. In any case, students must produce some tangible item(s) by
the end of the period. This helps to keep them on task and assures that the time
set aside for research actually is used for that purpose. Before the bell, ask to see
one or more of these:
• preliminary outline of the topic
• rough draft of a thesis statement or introduction
• list of keywords or search terms related to the topic, including any not
useful
• list of potential sources in the school library
• list of specific reference books they have located and plan to use
• printouts from a specified number of Web sites with URL and note if site
may be useful
• several note cards with full bibliographic information (on the second
visit you can expect to see notes on these cards)
• printouts from one or more local college libraries or public libraries
whose online catalogs they have searched for sources they may use (and
explain how to get cards to use these libraries)
• for a controversial topic, one article representing each side
• questions they have not been able to answer or topics for which they have
found no information despite the hour they have just spent searching
• names of people they may want to interview or authors whose work may
be important
• outline of a survey they may want to conduct
• a short paragraph about "discoveries you made this hour"
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24/7 Online Library Services
Students today have a multitude of ways to get information without leaving their
homes. They can access the Internet or use online databases such as ProQuest,
NewsBank, SIRS, or EBSCO. Now they have a new alternative, access by e-mail
or phone to their local library's Web page where they will find the Ask a Librarian
or 24/7 button. They can ask for help or even get the exact answer they have not
been able to find for a homework question.
Ask a Librarian, or some similar 24/7 online service, is a fairly new phenom-
enon in reference service now being offered by many public libraries and the Li-
brary of Congress. These programs piggy-back on the idea of the central reference
desk where a person could find assistance in answering a question. In an ideal
situation the reference librarian would find a source or several sources to answer
the question and then either get the materials or send the patron to the stacks for
them. Ask a Librarian is the electronic extension of that program and is now avail-
able online twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week.
The 24/7 e-mail and phone numbers are run by a consortium of libraries and
librarians that strive to provide library/information services to the public on a round-
the-clock basis. While this service is still being discovered by adults, many students
are beginning to explore the library Web pages that use the service. The upside
is that students are being helped by professional library staff. The downside for
schools and teachers is that the mission of public libraries is different from that of
school libraries.
Public librarians locate the materials and information that their patrons request;
school librarians teach students how to find the materials and information them-
selves. Whenever students venture into a public library and ask for assistance,
most librarians recognize that they are students and try to do some quick on-the-
spot instruction as they help them to find the answers they seek. The online ser-
vice librarians are dealing with an unseen patron and so provide the information
requested or, in the case of online services, give the Web address of one or more
sites that can best answer the question. If the patron has problems finding answers
from the Web site, the librarian may even highlight the needed information on the
screen. This is a great help to adults, but defeats the "hunt for information" aspect
of the research process that students need to master.
To level the playing field for all students, since there is no way to prevent
a student from using this service or to track the students who use the service,
teachers should make sure all students are familiar with 24/7 and Ask a Librarian
programs.
Reprinted with permission of the authors: Guiding Students from Cheating and Plag
rism to Honesty and Integrity: Strategies for Change by Ann Lathrop and Kathleen Fo
placed on a web site or distributed in any digital format. This statement must appea
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A "Research Night Out" for Parents
Our librarian is planning an interesting evening to introduce you to the world of

online information. [Name of administrator, teacher, counselor, etc.] will also join
us to answer questions. Please check the topics you would find most interesting:
1. Standard Internet terminology: browser, search engine, Web site, and so
on.
2. Internet Web sites versus traditional book material: accuracy, hoaxes,
and misinformation.
3. How to evaluate a site for accuracy, authority, currency, objectivity, and
coverage.
4. How information is indexed by search engines and how to find it: Bool-
ean logic.
5. Homework helpers on the Web and what they do that a tutor does.
6. The 24/7 librarian help sites available through the public libraries.
7. ProQuest, InfoTrac, NewsBank, and other commercial online databases
available at public and school library Web sites. We can do a show and
tell about these databases.
8. Web sites elementary students can use for learning and fun.
9. Web sites parents can access with questions about parenting problems.
10. University library Web pages open to use by high school students.
11. Plagiarism and what parents can do to help students avoid it.
12. The school's Academic Integrity Policy or Honor Code, especially the
sections that define cheating and plagiarizing, including a discussion
with teachers, an administrator, or a counselor.
Please return this to [any teacher by date]. We look forward to seeing you in
the library.
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School Library Web Sites That Support Integrity in Student Writing
dewey.chs.chico.kl2.ca.us/
Chico High School, Chico, CA
Peter Milbury
www.whps.org/school/conard/library/
Conard High School, West Hartford, CT
Katy Klarnet and Tobey Mintz
www.greece.kl2.ny.us/ath/library/about.htm
Greece Athena High School, Rochester, NY
Nancy Dillon-Lyboldt and Will Haines
remc 12.k 12.mi.us/lhslib/
Lakeview High School, Battle Creek, MI
Margaret Lincoln
www.ncusd203.org/central/html/where/lrc/
Naperville Central High School, Naperville, IL
Thomas Bohdan and Jane Sharka
www.gananda.kl2.ny.us/library/mshslibrary/indexgcl.htm
Ruben A. Cirillo High School, Walworth, NY
Jacquie Henry
mciu.org/~spjvweb
Springfield Township High School, Erdenheim, PA
Joyce K. Valenza
www.sasaustin.org/library
St. Andrew's Episcopal School, Austin, TX
Barbara Jansen
Note to our readers: Please tell us about other school library Web sites that
help students learn the skills they need in order to avoid plagiarism.
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Plagiarism Web Sites for Educators
Bates, Peggy, and Margaret Fain. "Cheating 101: Easy Steps to Combating Plagiarism."
Coastal Carolina U. www.coastal.edu/library/presentations/easystep.html
Bombak, Anna. "Guide to Plagiarism and Cyber-Plagiarism." www.library.ualberta.
ca/guides/plagiarism/why/index.cfm
Community Learning Network, www.cln.org/themes/plagiarism.html
Conradson, Stacey, and Pedro Hernandez-Ramos. "Computers, the Internet, and
Cheating Among Secondary School Students: Some Implications for Educators."
pareonline. net/getvn.
Council of Writing Program Administrators. "Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism: The
WPA Statement on Best Practices." www.ilstu.edu/~ddhesse/wpa/positions/WPA
plagiarism.pdf
Kemmerer, Kathleen. "Techniques for Encouraging Academic Integrity." Pennsylvania
State U., Hazelton. www.hn.psu.edu/faculty/kkemmerer/acadintegrity/ac-integ.htm
NCHS "Plagiarism Stoppers." www.ncusd203.org/central/html/where/plagiarism_stop-
pers.html
Pearson, Gretchen. "Electronic Plagiarism Seminar." LeMoyne College, Syracuse, NY
www. lemoy ne. edu/library/plagiarism/index. htm
Plagiarized.com: The Definitive Guide to Internet Plagiarism, www.plagiarized.com/
Pyatt, Elizabeth J. "Cyberplagiarism: Detection and Prevention." Pennsylvania State U.
tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/cyberplag/
Stoerger, Sharon. "Plagiarism." www.web-miner.com/plagiarism
TLT@SUNY (Teaching, Learning and Technology). "22 Ways to Handle Technology
Enhanced Cheating." State U. of New York, tlt.suny.edu/cheating.htm
UMUC Center for Intellectual Property (U. of Maryland University College). "Plagia-
rism." www.umuc.edu/distance/odell/cip/links_plagiarism.html
UMUC VAIL—Virtual Academic Integrity Laboratory (U. of Maryland University
College). "Student Resources, Faculty Resources, Detection Tools and Methods."
www.umuc.edu/distance/odell/cip/vail/home.html
Weisbard, Phyllis Holman. "Cheating, Plagiarism (and Other Questionable Practices),
the Internet, and Other Electronic Resources." U. of Wisconsin www.library.wisc.
edu/libraries/WomensStudies/plag.htm
Writing@CSU "Plagiarism: Understanding and Addressing It." Colorado State U. writ-
ing.colostate.edu/references/teaching/plagiarism/index.cfm
Evaluation of Plagiarism Detection Services

University of Maryland University College, www.umuc.edu/distance/odell/cip/links_
plagiarism.html#detection
University of Michigan, www.lib.umich.edu/acadintegrity/instructors/violations/detec-
tion.htm
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Identifying a Plagiarized Paper—Not As Simple As It Sounds
Many articles in magazines and on Web sites make it appear that you can find a
plagiarized paper online easily and quickly by searching for a distinctive word
string. Not so. For suspected plagiarism, if you begin your search with Google,
you must also search Alta Vista, Dogpile, and so on. Then you must search
EBSCO, SIRS, NewsBank, ProQuest, and other commercial databases. There are
a number of reasons why you still may not find it.
Students have become sophisticated about breaking up distinctive word strings
in a paper copied from the Internet. It's very difficult to "catch" a paper that has
been put through a language translator from another language into English, from
English into another language and back, or through the autosummarize function
of a word processor. Many students then camouflage the paper by adding a few
misspellings or grammatical errors to make it look more like a student-written
paper.
Turning for help to an online plagiarism detection service offers a false sense
of security. A service locates a paper only after it has been entered into their data-
base, is online in the public holdings of a paper mill, or is included in one of the
online periodical/newspaper databases searched by the service. Original papers
written "to order" and purchased from online paper mills or other sources will
not show up.
And what about the kid who still copies from an encyclopedia or other print
source not yet online? Or students may invent a false book or journal to cite, or
describe an imaginary interview for a paper that requires one. Plagiarized papers
"written" by students using these techniques often go undetected.
Should you help a teacher who wants to search online to prove a paper has
been plagiarized? Yes, of course. Take the opportunity to talk about restructuring a
writing assignment to make plagiarism more difficult. Offer handouts to reinforce
the message. At some appropriate time, offer to work with this teacher to develop
collaborative lessons that can help reduce students' willingness and opportunity
to plagiarize. Emphasize the benefits of focusing on and grading the research pro-
cess as well focusing on the research product, or paper.
An attempt to catch plagiarizers after papers have been turned in can be a huge
waste of time. In reality you usually catch only the truly clueless and lazy. It is not
fair to catch a few and let the more sophisticated plagiarists get credit for papers
they did not write. All plagiarism cannot be stopped, but applying many of the
prevention techniques suggested in print and online articles can sharply reduce it
in your classroom.
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Online Sites for Reports and Research Papers
These five sites are representative of the several hundred online paper mills being
used by students today. They were selected for their interesting disclaimers. All
were available at the URL listed as of July 2005.
We listed 50 online sites in our earlier book; many are no longer available.
Most of those still in business have updated their prices and many have added new
features. The screen designs and search engines are more sophisticated, and most
of them have a great many more papers available.
Many sites now offer copies of the research materials that support the article
for an additional charge per page. This means that students who purchase their
papers as soon as the assignment is given can have copies of the articles and a
bibliography ready to turn in regardless of when the paper is due. Teachers can
foil this service by requiring a preliminary bibliography within a few days of mak-
ing the assignment and asking to see the actual book, magazine article, Web site
printout, or other reference source.
ACADEMIC TERMPAPERS
www.academictermpapers.com
Disclaimer: "All reports are copyrighted by Academic Termpapers and are sold
for research and reference purposes only and may not be submit-
ted either in whole or in part for academic credit."
Description: "30,000 reports, essays, and expert custom research papers [with]
experienced professionals writing in virtually all subject areas and
can produce original research on your topic of interest."
Pricing: $7.00 per page with no charge for bibliographies, footnotes, or
partial pages. Custom papers are $17.00 and up per page, with a
five-page minimum.
CHEATHOUSE.COM
www.cheathouse.com
Disclaimer: "And don't be an idiot! If you hand in one of these essays exactly
as it is, you ARE running a risk. IF caught, you could be kicked
out of your school. It happens. Teachers have been known to check
essay sites, and students have been caught. Instead of copying an
essay, just use it—get inspired, use the bibliography and cite the
essay. Simple and no risk."
Description: "50,000+ essays and papers. You can view as many essays you
like, as many times as you like. Note that you pay for access to
the database—we do not guarantee the quality, completeness or
accuracy of any of the essays. And we regularly delete the worst
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essays, to stay on top." Has an article on Web site, "Using Sources
Without Plagiarizing."
Pricing: $14.95 per month for access to entire database, or free access to
10,000+ essays if student contributes a paper.
EXAMPLE ESSAYS.COM
www.exampleessays.com
Disclaimer: "The papers contained within our web site are for research pur-
poses only! You may not turn in our papers as your own work! You
must cite our website as your source! Turning in a paper from our
web site as your own is plagiarism and is illegal!"
Description: "101,000+ papers, most with bibliographies. ExampleEssays.com
has high quality student written term papers, essays, and book re-
ports. Most papers are written with recent, relevant, information
on many different topics." Custom papers are available.
Pricing: $24.95 per month and up to print any number of papers.
REALPAPERS.COM
www.realpapers.com
Disclaimer: "Our work is designed only to assist students in the preparation of
their own work. Review our papers for ideas, sources, & research
information! Cite us as an academic source in your own paper!"
Description: "The Internet's premier term paper assistance service with more
than 50,000 example papers to download & study from today!
Struggling to find some last minute research articles, studies, and
ideas to cite in your own term paper? Find an example paper to
help you on this site! Shop Through Our Tens Of Thousands Of
Professionally Created Papers by subject or by keyword & select
the one(s) closest to the topic with which you're struggling! Just
click our easy order button & receive the paper TODAY!7"
Pricing: $9.95 per page with free bibliography.
SCHOOL PAPER.COM
www.schoolpaper.com
Disclaimer: "The intended purpose of our term papers is that they be used as
models to assist you in the preparation of your own. Plagiarism is
a CRIME! IF YOU QUOTE FROM OUR WORK, YOU MUST
CITE OUR PAPER AS ONE OF YOUR SOURCES. This service is
NOT available to anyone who does not have a valid, ethical reason
for seeking our tutorial assistance."
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Description: "A large collection of high quality pre-written example papers at a
low price [and] a database of literature summaries. Our summaries
are specially written to give you a comprehensive understanding
of the literature, when you're in crunch and are out of time to read
them."
Pricing: $20.00 per paper regardless of length. Membership fee required.
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Copyright and Plagiarism Guidelines for Students
Carol Simpson
1. You may make a single photocopy of any material you need to do your
schoolwork, or for your own personal research. You may keep the copies
you make as long as you like, but you may not sell them, nor may you
make copies of your copies.
2. You must respect the copyright of the materials you use. Only the cre-
ators, or the persons or companies who own the copyright may make
copies of the material, except as noted above. You may not modify or
change the material, nor may you perform or display the material except
in conjunction with class work.
3. You may use copyrighted material to do your schoolwork, but if you use
an author's ideas you must give the author credit, either in the text or in a
footnote. If you use an author's words, you must put the words in quota-
tion marks or other indication of direct quotation. Failure to give credit
to the author is plagiarism. If you use an extensive amount of a single
work, you must obtain permission.
4. Use of copyrighted materials outside of regular class work requires writ-
ten permission of the copyright holder. This includes graphic material
such as cartoon characters on posters or other spirit or decorative mat-
ter.
5. You may not copy computer software from the school computers.
6. Information received from the school computers may be used only for
regular schoolwork or personal research.
7. The source of any information used in your schoolwork should be ac-
knowledged in the format prescribed by the teacher. Use of another's
intellectual work without attribution is plagiarism, as outlined in the Stu-
dent Code of Conduct.
[Reprinted with permission from Appendix H of Copyright for Schools: A Practical Guide,
4th ed., by Carol Simpson. Lin worth Publishing, 2005.]
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The Importance of a Copyright Policy
Carol Simpson
Why bother to have a copyright policy? The purpose of a copyright policy is to

state the school's intention to abide by the law. AIME (Association for Informa-
tion Media and Equipment), the copyright watchdog group, boasts of its successes
in redressing copyright infringement. The majority of the settlements involve the
establishment of an institutional policy regarding copyright as well as compre-
hensive training and plans for tracking and monitoring copyright compliance. At
a minimum, the following points should be included in a school or district copy-
right policy:
1. The policy states the institution's intention to abide by the letter and
spirit of the copyright law and the associated Congressional guidelines.
2. The policy covers all types of materials including print, nonprint, graph-
ics, and computer software.
3. The liability for noncompliance with copyright rests with the individual
using the work.
4. The district mandates training for all personnel who might need to make
copies.
5. The person using the materials must be able to produce, on request,
copyright justification for its use.
6. The district appoints a copyright officer who serves as a point of contact
for copyright information both within and without the district. That per-
son will likely track licenses, serve as the registered copyright agent for
the school's Web site and will oversee training of all students and teach-
ers in copyright compliance.
[Abridged with permission from Chapter 15 of Copyright for Schools: A Practical Guide,
4th ed., by Carol Simpson. Linworth Publishing, 2005.]
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Sources for Information on Copyright Policy
10 Big Myths About Copyright Explained, by Brad Templeton. www.temple-

tons. com/brad/copy my ths. html
Copyright, by PBS. www.pbs.org/teachersource/copyright/copyright.shtm
Copyright and Intellectual Property, by the American Library Association.
www.ala.org/ala/ourassociation/governingdocs/aheadto2010/copyright.
htm
Copyright Basics, by the U.S. Copyright Office, www.copyright.gov/circs/circl.
html
Copyright Compliance Made Easy! by Copyright Clearance Center, www.copy-
right.com
Copyright for Schools: A Practical Guide, 4th ed., by Carol Simpson. Lin-
worth Publishing, 2005.
Copyright Hotline 1-800-444-4203, available to schools, libraries, and other
public institutions by Association for Information Media and Equipment
Copyright Law and Fair Use, by PBS. www.pbs.org/teachersource/copyright/
copyright_fairuse. shtm
Copyright Law in the Electronic Environment, by Georgia Harper, www.utsys-
tem.edu/OGC/IntellectualProperty/faculty.htm
Copyright Web site, www.benedict.com
"The Importance of a Copyright Policy," in Copyright for Schools: A Practical
Guide, 4th ed., by Carol Simpson. Lin worth Publishing, 2005.
Q & A, by Association of American Publishers, Inc. www.publishers.org
Reprinted with permission of the authors: Guiding Students from Cheating and Plagi
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ISTE National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) Project
International Society for Technology in Education
The goal of the ISTE National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers
(NETS) Project is to guide educational leaders in recognizing and addressing the
essential conditions for effective use of technology to support PK-12 education.
The NETS standards span all subject areas and grade levels. The standards below
are an excerpt from the "Social, Ethical, Legal, and Human Issues" section of the
National Educational Technology Standards for Students: Connecting Curricu-
lum and Technology (ISTE, 2003).
Profile for Technology Literate Students, Grades 6-8

Standard 3. Exhibit legal and ethical behaviors when using information and
technology, and discuss consequences of misuse.
Profile for Technology Literate Students, Grades 9-12

Standard 4. Demonstrate and advocate for legal and ethical behaviors among
peers, family, and community regarding the use of technology and infor-
mation.
Standard 7. Routinely and efficiently use online information resources to meet
needs for collaboration, research, publications, communications, and pro-
ductivity.
Other puhlications in the ISTE series:

National Education Technology Standards for Teachers: Resources for Assess-
ment
[Information on the ISTE National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS)
Project is available at www.iste.org]
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CHAPTER TEN
Lessons to Support Integrity

in the Writing Process
Do you think you understand what the term plagiarism means?

• Yes it is when you copie someone's work word for word but they have to
have copie written it to file charges on you or to get you in trouble. 7th
grade boy
• Depends on the definition. Plagiarism changes depending on where you
work. 10th grade girl
• Yeah, it means a lot of different methods not just the copy and paste
method. 11th grade girl
• Yes, yet if the paper you take doesn 't have a copyright or says it can be
used then plagiarism does NOT apply. 10th grade girl
• Not completely—with photocopying and stuff—but I think students are
protected from that. But from books and stuff, yes. 12th grade boy
• Of course, but sometimes you have to do the wrong thing in order to get
the job done. (As long as no one knows). 11th grade boy
• Yes, if I changed it and revised it to my style, so that's not really plagia-
rism is it? 10th grade boy
• Never seen the term before. 9th grade boy
Many lessons are available in print and online to help teach students to avoid
plagiarism. We selected four that we liked and wrote four of our own; we hope
you find them to be helpful idea-starters for your own instructional program. All
eight lessons are formatted as COPY ME pages.
The first two lessons are designed to help young students develop the concept
of research as (1) a search for answers to questions, and (2) a way to write down,
cite, or document the book, magazine, or Web site where the answer was found.
They are simple in design and can be varied in many ways.
Murray Suid's lesson is designed for elementary students and could be adapted
for middle school. His goal is for students to use and to think about encyclopedias
in ways that do not promote direct copying.
The multigenre research paper, or project, is an excellent way to develop a
writing assignment that would be difficult to locate online. The choice of topics
can be limited and the list of genre controlled. The first multigenre lesson includes
a list of the books, articles, and Web sites we identified as most helpful. "Your
Multigenre Web" has many good examples and walks students through every step
of the process. "Mrs. Juster's Virtual Classroom" is rich in examples matched to
specific genre. The article by Ellen Goldfinch includes a sample evaluation rubric.
The most thorough discussion of actual student experiences in writing multigenre
papers is the article by Margaret Moulton, with many examples of student work
and an extensive bibliography. Tom Romano is credited as the originator of the
multigenre report format.
A very good example of the multigenre assignment is the lesson by Perkins
and Guy. Students are asked to identify their own theme and then select a poem or
song to reflect the assigned literary works. They write an essay relating the literary
works to their theme and the selected poem or song. The assigned literary works
and the focus of the essay can be varied each semester.
The last three short lessons give students practice with the skills they need to
avoid plagiarism. They can be adapted for any grade level from upper elementary
through high school.
Resources
Lessons as COPY ME pages:
Marcia Jensen: "Research in the Primary Grades: Spiders"
Beverly Schottler: "Fourth Grade Researchers"
Murray Suid: "How to Take Copying Out of Report Writing"
Kathy Foss: "Assigning a Multigenre Research Project"
Christine Perkins and Laurie Guy: "Identifying a Unifying Theme as a Final Exam
in Literature"
Cite It? Don't Have to Cite It?
Practice for Note Cards, Paraphrasing, Quoting, and Summarizing
Cut-and-Paste Research
COPY ME page:
Teaching About Plagiarism: Resources
the Internet Era: A Wake-Up Call: Chapter 15, Tools for Writing without Plagiariz-
ing; Chapter 16, Alternatives to Traditional Writing Assignments.
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Research in the Primary Grades: Spiders
Marcia Jensen
In this day of easy access to lots of information, much of it in an electronic for-

mat, teachers want to facilitate honesty and integrity in the way their students "do
research." Only a small number of students will master the necessary thinking
and research skills without direct instruction. To encourage integrity in research,
we must design assignments that encourage the continued growth of higher-order
thinking.
The first question to ask when designing an assignment is, "What do I want
my students to know and be able to do when they finish?" Next is, "How will I
know that they know it and can do it?" These questions focus the development
of the assignment into a manageable project. Close collaboration between the
teacher and librarian in planning the lessons and identifying appropriate materials
is important for success.
A primary teacher whose students are doing a unit on spiders wants to focus
attention on the concept that answers to questions can be found in books.
Day 1: Read a storybook with a spider as a main character. Ask students
what they know about real spiders and what questions they have. Write their
questions on a large chart, leaving space for answers. One question my stu-
dents had was, "Do spiders wear glasses?" (The storybook spider did.) We
developed this question into, "What kind of eyesight do spiders have?"
Day 2: Read an easy nonfiction book about spiders to the students after
reviewing their questions. Tell them to raise their hand when they hear an
answer. Record answers they learn from the book under the appropriate
questions. Say, "We are taking notes so we can remember what we learned."
Be sure to write on the chart the name (title) of the book that had the an-
swers and the name of the person who wrote the book (author).
Day 3: Go over the questions and read the answers together from the chart
with the notes. Review the way the students developed their questions, found
answers from the book, and recorded their answers as notes (information).
Then have students make a picture of one thing they learned from their re-
search. They can share their pictures and explanations based on information
they learned from the book(s).
[Marcia Jensen, Library Media Specialist, Davenport Community School District, Daven-
port, Iowa]
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Fourth Grade Researchers

Beverly Schottler and Martha Biggs
You are going to become a researcher. A researcher is someone who goes to books,
magazines, encyclopedias, newspapers, Internet Web sites, or other sources to find in-
formation. The place where the researcherfindsthe information is called a source.
Letting others know your sources (documenting your sources)

Someone reading your report will want to know your sources, or where you
found your information. Telling your reader about your sources is called docu-
menting your sources.
You must tell the reader all of the details about the book, magazine, encyclope-
dia, newspaper, Internet Web site, or other source that you used for information.
You must tell who wrote it, the title, where it was published, who published it,
and the date it was published. For an Internet Web site, also tell the date when you
found the information.
This information lets the reader know your source was good. The reader can go
to your source for more information.
Reporting your information (so you are not plagiarizing)

You must report your information by writing it in your own words. If you use some-
one else's words or ideas, you must quote and document their words and ideas.
Using someone else's exact words without quoting them is a kind of cheating
called plagiarism. You must either quote your source, using quotation marks, or
write what you learned in your own words. You are cheating, also called plagia-
rism, if you:
1. copy some else's words or ideas without quoting them in quotation
marks, or
2. you do not document your source by telling your reader where you found
the information.
Writing your information in your own words

An important skill when using ideas from sources is how to put the ideas in
your own words. Did you ever tell a four-year-old the story of Goldilocks and the
Three Bears? Did you use the exact words from a book? You probably told the
story in your own words but without changing the ideas in the story.
To be a researcher, you must first read carefully and think about what you
have read, then take a new piece of paper and write the information in your own
words. When you quote any words from your source, you must put those words
in quotation marks to show you are using someone else's words. This documents
your sources and keeps your report free of plagiarism.
This paragraph is about an elephant's trunk. It is from Explore the World of
Amazing Animals, by M. Carwardine. How would you tell it in your own words?
Be sure to include all the information you need, but don't change the meaning.
198
An elephant's trunk has many different uses. The animal can use it to pick
fruit from high up in a tree, smell and touch things, and throw dust over its
back while it is having a dust bath. The trunk is also used for drinking, by
sucking up water and squirting it into the elephant's mouth, or as a loud-
speaker for amplifying its trumpeting calls. Perhaps the most unusual use,
however, is as a snorkel. As an elephant walks underwater along the bottom
or a river or lake, it holds its trunk in the air to breathe (p. 14).
Documenting your sources—where the information came from

Carwardine, M. (1991). Explore the World of Amazing Animals. New York:
Western Publishing Company, Inc.
Using My Own Words #1

The trunk of an elephant can be used like a snorkel. An elephant can be under
the water and still breathe by holding its trunk above the water.
did not copy words of author
X did not change meaning
_£_ included information I needed

The elephant uses its trunk for many different uses. An elephant can use it to
pick fruit from high up in a tree, smell and touch things, and throw dust over its
back while it is having a dust bath. Drinking, trumpeting, and breathing are other
uses.
did not copy words of author
X included information I needed

The elephant uses its trunk for many different uses An elephant can pick food
from a tree, drink water, and trumpet with its trunk It uses its trunk to smell,
touch, throw, and breathe.
JL_ did not copy words of author
JC_ included information I needed
[Adapted with permission from A HandbookforDealing with Plagiarism in Public Schools,

© 2003 by Beverly A. Schottler, Ed.D. and Martha Biggs.]
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How to Take Copying Out of Report Writing: Activities That Spark

Creative Thinking and Original Writing
Murray Suid
Now comes that thrilling moment: You announce your students' first research as-
signment. They are to select a topic, visit the library, gather facts from print and
online sources, and write a report. Off they go, and if they are like most kids, they
head straight for that most incredible of all resources, the general encyclopedia in
print, online, or on a disc.
Sure enough, whatever the topic, there is a wealth of facts about it in the pages
of these wonderful books. What's more, in today's home or school, the informa-
tion is available electronically so students don't even have to write it out! They
just pick the paragraphs they want, then cut and paste them together for a report.
Intuitively knowing that copying is wrong, students may try to retell the ency-
clopedia article in their own words. They switch around a few sentences and do a
little paraphrasing here and there. The text becomes murkier, but at least the report
isn't a word-for-word steal.
The more inventive and industrious kids, meanwhile, take the smoosh (that's
the technical term) route. They copy a little from one encyclopedia, more from a
second one, and add some interesting information they found on a Web site. Then
they smoosh the facts together to create a new, chaotic version.
Report writing doesn't have to be like this. The print or electronic encyclopedia
can be used to spark creative thinking and original writing rather than plagiarism.
It can be used to promote inquiry rather than inhibit it. Here are three assignments
designed to meet these goals.
Use the style of an encyclopedia article to write about a subject not found in
the encyclopedia
Begin by studying biographical articles in the encyclopedia, selecting people
appropriate to their grade and interest levels. The assignment is to interview a liv-
ing person, then write an encyclopedia-style article about the person. Perhaps the
class will publish its own encyclopedia with articles about local people, places,
and events.
Of course, you must first teach your novice encyclopedists how to write ency-
clopedia articles, a kind of expository essay. There are two elements to point out:
the lead and the body. Most encyclopedia articles use a one-sentence or one-para-
graph lead that sums up the subject, similar to a dictionary definition. The main
part, or body, of the article provides details. The paragraphs usually are arranged
in chronological order: place and date of birth, early years, education, career, and
significant accomplishments.
Articles dealing with places and objects use a more analytical organization.
An article about a city or country can be divided into sections about geography,
history, commerce, people, and arts. Reading several articles aloud and discuss-
200
ing them can help students get a feel for the different ways information can be
organized.
Simplify an encyclopedia article for students at a lower grade level

Paraphrasing an encyclopedia article is a powerful way to master content and
style. It becomes more interesting and creative when the paraphrasing is done to
make material understandable to younger students. This activity has a number of
benefits.
First, writing for younger children gives older students a sense of having a real
audience. It stimulates analytical thinking as they learn to break down complex
ideas into their basic components. Developing paraphrased sentences that are short
and simple make students more aware of sentence structure. Finally, vocabulary
selection is fine-tuned as they search for easier, more familiar words to use.
The culminating activity of this assignment is for the older students to share
their articles with younger students to see if they can read and comprehend them.
Create adaptations using encyclopedia articles

Adaptation is the art of transporting material (text, facts, plots) from one for-
mat to another. This is not plagiarism if credit is given to the original source, but
it can encourage higher-level thinking skills. Students might convert an ency-
clopedia article into a nonfiction picture book, the diary of an inventor, a puppet
show of an historical event, a speech made by a famous person, a travel brochure,
a game-show quiz, or a short story of historical fiction. The adaptation process is
the same regardless of the format of the original or the adaptation.
• Study the information in the article carefully to become familiar with it.
• Choose an appropriate new format. An account of the Civil War could
become a diary kept by a typical Northern soldier. An article about
Cleveland, Ohio could be the basis for a travel brochure. A fairy tale
could become a play or puppet show.
• Study the elements of the new format. The best way to understand the
new format is to read several examples of it and look for common ele-
ments. Diary entries, for example, almost always begin with the date and
usually are written in the first person.
• Write the adaptation. This will require deleting some material, writing
new material, rearranging, compressing, and expanding.
Students must learn to keep the sense of the original while transferring the
content and ideas into the new format. Doing this successfully is what makes this
activity an intellectual and artistic challenge.
A process commentary encourages students to reflect on their writing

experience
For any written assignment, students can be encouraged to reflect on the activ-
ity in a "My Process" section. You might list a few items that everyone should
201
include: why I chose this topic or project, the tasks I most enjoyed in writing the
report, problems I encountered, what I would do differently next time, strengths
and weaknesses of my report, advice I'd give to another student writing this paper
or doing this project, the grade I'd give this project, and why I'd give it that
mark.
Summary
Creating their own encyclopedia articles provides students with practice in
sentence, paragraph, and report structure. The simplifying activity leads easily
into more sophisticated paraphrasing skills. The adaptations will challenge stu-
dents' creative abilities. In these ways, students develop a better understanding
of the concept of seeking knowledge for specific purposes. They also learn to
repackage and present their new knowledge in useful and interesting ways that
don't involve copying or plagiarism.
[© 2005. Murray Suid taught composition for 10 years at San Jose State University. He
is the author of many books including Recipes for Writing, Moviemaking Illustrated, and
How to Be President of the U.S.A. He also writes screenplays and is the founder of Point
Reyes Pictures.]
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Assigning a Multigenre Research Report
Kathy Foss
This is not your typical written essay, three to five pages type of report. For this
project you will create original material in the number of different genres as-
signed. You might write a newspaper editorial and a poem, add a photograph, and
write a short essay linking them together. They must have a common theme or
focus with smooth transitions among all of the pieces, much as if you were show-
ing someone a scrapbook of a trip or an event.
First select your topic or theme, then consider what genres would be effective
for communicating with your audience. Your topic or theme must be one that has
enough information available for effective research, and it must lend itself to this
type of project. You will decide what information is important and how you want
to present it. The two examples and the list of possible genres listed below can
help you to get started. Finally, complete a bibliography and write a short reflec-
tion piece on your creative process.
Book report: Farewell to Manzanar

Perhaps write an opening essay on why Japanese-Americans were moved to
internment camps, beginning by finding a newspaper account of the attack on
Pearl Harbor. Add a short essay on why the attack happened and why we were not
prepared. Other items could be a magazine photo of people being transported to
the camps, a poster telling them what they could take, and a diary entry of a per-
son seeing Manzanar for the first time. Discuss newspaper editorials with pro and
con arguments about sending American citizens to internment camps. Interview a
person who was at a camp or read an interview about an internee. Your story about
the book (the "report") is woven through these items.
Research report on Dia de los Muertes (Day of the Dead)

You could begin with a newspaper article describing a local celebration. Find
or draw a picture of celebrants in a graveyard. Make a personal altar or skeletal
character for the celebration. Write a song or poem in English or Spanish, then
translate it into the other language. Your written report can explain the activities
on Dia de los Muertes, why it came to be a holiday, and how it differs from Hal-
loween. It also brings together all the original pieces you have created and relates
them to your theme.
A few of the many types of genre you might create (ask permission to add to list):
Advice column Autobiography Advertisement

Announcement Book jacket Campaign speech or poster
Cartoon or comic strip CD cover Character sketch
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Collage Diary entry Encyclopedia article
Eulogy Informative essay Narrative essay
Eyewitness account Graph/chart Greeting card
Illustration Interview Job application
Letter Mandala Map with legend
Menu Movie review Newspaper article
Obituary One act play Photo with description
Poem Puppet show Quiz
Radio broadcast Recipe Resume
Song/ballad/rap Travel poster Wanted poster
[Ideas for the structure of this lesson came primarily from Ellen Goldfinch's
article, "A Match Made in Heaven: The Multigenre Project Marries Imagination
and Research Skills," in the April/May 2003 issue of Library Media Connection.
Permission is granted to adapt this lesson.]
Resources for the Multigenre Research Project

Print Resources
Allen, Camille Ann. The Multigenre Research Paper: Voice, Passion, and Dis-
covery in Grades 4-6. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2001.
Cate, Timothy E. " 'This Is Cool!' Multigenre Research Reports." Social Stud-
ies 91:3 (2000): 137-40.
Davis, Robert, and Mark Shadle. "Building a Mystery: Alternative Research
Writing and the Academic Act of Seeking." CCC 53:3 (2000): 417-46.
Goldfinch, Ellen. "A Match Made in Heaven: The Multigenre Project Marries
Imagination and Research Skills." Library Media Connection 21:7 (2003):
26-28.
Moulton, Margaret R. "The Multigenre Paper: Increasing Interest, Motivation,
and Functionality in Research." Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy
42:1 (1999): 528-39.
Romano, Tom. Blending Genre, Altering Style: Writing Multigenre Papers.
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2000.
Romano, Tom. Writing with Passion: Life Stories, Multiple Genres. New York:
Elsevier, Reed, 1995.
Online Resources
"American Authors Research Assignment." www.ahs.asdl03.org/Library/am-
authorsc2.htm
"CD 315: Instructions for Multigenre Research Project (MRP)." www.bayarea-
writingproject.org/15/stories/storyReader$24?print-friendly = true
"English 121: Research Possibilities—The Multi-Genre and Multi-Media Re-
search Project." www.emunix.emich.edu/âdlerk/multigenre_instructions.
htm, www.emunix.emich.edu/âdlerk/multi_genre_researchl .htm
204
"Mrs. Juster's Virtual Classroom: Multi-Genre Writing." www.mrsjustersvir-
tualclassroom.com/Am%20Htg%20Writing%20MG.htm
"Your Multigenre Web: Everything you need to know to succeed." www.
sheboyganfalls.kl2.wi.us/cyberenglish9/multi_genre/multigenre.htm
205
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Identifying a Unifying Theme as a Final Exam in Literature (Part 1)
Christine Perkins and Laurie Guy
As the end of the semester approached, we started looking at ways to demonstrate

to the students that many works of literature share universal themes and ideas that
are relevant to everyday life. The four works we had read and discussed in class
were Antigone (Sophocles), Julius Caesar (Shakespeare), Arthurian legends, and
To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee).
The idea behind the poster project was to allow the students to come up with
a theme that tied together any three of the works we had read over the semester,
and then reflect on the significance of that theme to their own lives. Each student
selected three of the four works and, as an individual fourth work, chose song lyr-
ics or a poem to fit the theme identified for the project.
The results were better than hoped for, as many students thoughtfully analyzed
significant ideas and really understood the greater importance of the literature we
read as a whole, and not as individual works. While some themes tended to ap-
pear consistently, it was wonderful to see several students come up with a unique
perspective on the literature. The students were then able to share their insights
with the class.
[Christine Perkins and Laurie Guy are Language Arts teachers at El Dorado High School in
the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District in Placentia, CA.]
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Identifying a Unifying Theme as a Final Exam in Literature (Part 2)
Christine Perkins and Laurie Guy
Instructions to Student:
The literature studied this semester has revealed strong characters and ideas that
continue to be relevant to this day. There are important lessons to be learned and
passed on in these works of literature. Take a closer look at the ideas expressed
in these various genres, select three of them, and determine a common theme.
Your theme is a message that you felt was an important understanding about life
or human nature. Once you have determined a theme, create a carefully worded
theme statement that reflects your understanding of the ideas conveyed in these
three works. Then, choose a poem or song that also contains the same message.
Next, in your own words, explain how this theme applies to each work and the
song/poem you have chosen. Support your ideas with examples from the text. In
a final paper, reflect on the significance of this theme in literature and in life in
general. Each of the five papers is to be no more than one page in length. Arrange
your replies on a poster board as follows:
Theme Statement
Work 1-read in Work 2-read in

Lyrics/Poem
class class
Work 3-read in
class Work 4 (poem
you have
chosen)
Final Reflection
(your own
thoughts on
importance of
theme)
[Christine Perkins and Laurie Guy are Language Arts teachers at El Dorado High School in
the Placentia-Yorba Linda unified School District in Placentia, CA.]
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Cite It? Don't Have to Cite It?
To avoid plagiarism, must you cite your source for this information? Circle your
choice.
1. You find the term "cyber-sloth" in a magazine article and decide to use
it as the title of your term paper. Cite it Don Y have to cite it
2. You interview your history teacher about his experiences as a soldier
in Vietnam and include the interview in your report on the war.
Cite it Don Y have to cite it
3. In a PowerPoint presentation you use the music from Sting's Desert
Rose for background music. Cite it Don Y have to cite it
4. While doing a paper on the battles of the Spanish-American War, you
use the term "Remember the Maine." Cite it Don't have to cite it
5. Your research for a video documentary turns up a short TV news seg-
ment on your topic that you use as part of your introduction.
6. You use "stitch in time" in your creative writing assignment to illustrate
that your character acts as necessary in a crucial moment.
7. You use a magazine picture in your science fair project.
8. In writing your paper on the American Revolution you refer to Paul
Revere as a patriot from Boston. Cite it Don Y have to cite it
9. After reading a book on your research topic, you summarize it by writ-
ing a paragraph about it in your own words. Cite it Don Y have to
cite it
10. To show the route settlers used on the Oregon Trail you copy a map
from an encyclopedia. Cite it Don Y have to cite it
11. You use a poem you wrote for an English assignment last year to illus-
trate a point you want to emphasize in a literary analysis.
12. You draw a picture of a horse for your report on horse racing in Amer-
ica. Cite it Don Y have to cite it
[Based on an idea from Using Sources Effectively, 2nd ed., by Robert Harris (Pyrczak
Publishing, 2005).]
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Practice for Note Cards, Paraphrasing, Quoting, and Summarizing
For this assignment you need pages from a book, a magazine, a newspaper, and a
Web site. Making a class set of copies of each page will make storage easier than
if you store class sets of books, magazines, and newspapers.
• From the book, copy the title page and verso with the copyright infor-
mation, preferably back-to-back to give the students realistic practice in
finding the copyright information on the verso. Also copy one page with
an interesting paragraph.
• Copy the front cover of the magazine, being sure to show the title, date,
and volume number. Copy an interesting article, preferably only one
page.
• Copy the front page banner of the newspaper and an interesting article,
again preferably all on one page. Be sure the date and page number can
be read.
• Copy one interesting page from a Web site and include the Web ad-
dress.
• Trace five blank note cards onto a sheet of paper and make enough two-
sided copies of the note-card page for your class.
Teach the rules for note cards and citations. Students will make a note card for
each of the four different items: paraphrase the paragraph from the book, quote
from the magazine article, summarize the information from the newspaper article,
and make a bibliographic entry for the Web site, each following the style in the
student writing handbook.
The graded and corrected pages can be used for reference when students begin
their research paper. This also provides a hands-on component to the information
in the student writing handbook.
The book, magazine, newspaper, and Web site pages could be color-coded for
ease of sorting and distribution, and laminated for use each semester.
Caution: Databases like ProQuest, NewsBank, SIRS, and EBSCO allow you
to make multiple copies of magazine and newspaper articles only if you print all
of them from the online source. Making multiple copies from the print version, or
printing one copy from the online source and then making photocopies, is break-
ing the copyright law. The author/publisher receives copyright credit only for the
number of copies printed from the online source.
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Cut-and-Paste Research
Students will demonstrate that they know how to cut and paste from online ar-
ticles. The teacher will demonstrate a knowledge of how these papers can be as-
sembled. Students then use the same information to create correct citations and a
bibliography.
• List three or four questions and let each student select one.
• Identify three online sites for each question.
• Students cut and paste at least one fact from each site to "create" a one-
page paper.
• Read the papers to determine whether students know how to cut and
paste.
• This shows the students that you understand the cut-and-paste technique,
and lets you be sure students understand the technique.
• Discuss why cut-and-paste is not an acceptable research technique.
• Students then rewrite the paper entirely in their own words.
• Finally, students write the paper a third time, supporting their thesis by
correctly using and citing at least one of each: direct quote, paraphrase
of an idea, summary of an idea.
• Students complete a bibliography in the correct style as directed in the
school writing handbook.
• Discuss the process and what has been learned.
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Teaching About Plagiarism: Resources
Print Resources
Allen, Camille Ann. The Multigenre Research Paper: Voice, Passion, and Dis-
covery in Grades 4-6. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2001.
Clabaugh, Gary K., and Edward G. Rozycki. The Plagiarism Book: A Student's
Manual. 2nd ed. Oreland, PA: New Foundations, 2001.
Harris, Robert A. The Plagiarism Handbook. Los Angeles: Pyrczak, 2001.
Harris, Robert A. Using Sources Effectively: Strengthening Your Writing and
Avoiding Plagiarism. 2nd ed. Los Angeles: Pyrczak, 2004.
Nottage, Cindy, and Virginia Morse. Research in the Real Classroom: The
Independent Investigation Method for Primary Students. Gainesville, FL:
Maupin House, 2003.
Romano, Tom. Blending Genre, Altering Style: Writing Multigenre Papers.
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2000.
Romano, Tom. Writing with Passion: Life Stories, Multiple Genres. New York:
Elsevier, Reed, 1995.
Simpson, Carol. Copyright for Schools. 4th ed. Worthington, OH: Linworth,
2005.
Online Resources
"About: Lessons on Plagiarism." 712educators.about.com/cs/plagiarism/
Apple Learning Interchange Teaching and Learning. "Plagiarism Advice for
Lessons." henson.austin.apple.com/edres/ellesson/elem-writplagerism.shtml,
henson.austin.apple.com/edres/mslessons/ms-writplag.shtml
Burwell, Hope, and Allison York. "Kirkwood—Writing Across the Curricu-
lum. Suggestions for Developing Assignments That Minimize Plagiarism
Possibilities." www.kirkwood.edu/wac/tips/minimizing_plagiarism.htm
Capital Community College Library. "A Statement on Plagiarism." www.ccc.
commnet.edu/mla/plagiarism. shtml
"CD 315: Instructions for Multigenre Research Project (MRP)." www.bayarea-
writingproject.org/15/stories/storyReader$24?print-friendly = true
Columbia Gorge Community College. "Alternative Assignments Requiring
Library Research." www.cgcc.cc.or.us/Library/alternatives.htm
"CyberSmart! Lesson Plans." www.cybersmartcurriculum.org/lesson_plans
Education World. "Student Guide to Avoiding Plagiarism" + other lessons.
www.educationworld.com/a_curr/TM/curr390_guide.shtml
"Educational CyberPlay ground." www.edu-cyberpg.com/Teachers/plagiarism.
html
"English 121: Research Possibilities—The Multi-Genre and Multi-Media Re-
search Project." www.emunix.emich.edu/-'adlerk/multigenre_instructions.
htm, www.emunix.emich.edu/âdlerk/multi_genre_researchl .htm
211
aa
library.nsf/wholeshortlinks2/Plagiarism+Quiz?opendocument
Frick, Ted. "What is Plagiarism at Indiana University?" education.indiana.
edu/~frick/plagiarism/item 1 .html
Harris, Robert. "Virtual Salt: Anti-Plagiarism Strategies for Research Papers."
www.virtualsalt.com/antiplag.htm
"Mrs. Juster's Virtual Classroom: Multi-Genre Writing." www.mrsjustersvir-
tualclassroom.com/Am%20Htg%20Writing%20MG.htm
"The New York Times Learning Network Lesson Plan." www.nytimes.com/
learning/teachers/lessons/
OWL (Online Writing Lab, Purdue U. "Avoiding Plagiarism." owl.english.
purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_plagiar.html
"PBS Current Events Lesson Plans." www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/teachers/
Plagiarism.org. "Research Resources" (links to Turnitin Research Resources).
www.plagiarism.org/research_site/e_home.html
"Plagiarized.com: The Definitive Guide to Internet Plagiarism." www.plagia-
rized.com
Pyatt, Elizabeth J. "ANGEL Cyberplagiarism Question Bank Randomized."
Penn State U. tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/cyberplag/angelimportrandom.
html
Rudolph, Seri. "Plagiarism Resource Site." Colby College, Bates College, and
Bowdoin College, leeds.bates.edu/cbb/media/
Safety Net@2Learn.ca. "On Plagiarism." www.21earn.ca/mapset/safetynet/
plagiarism/plagiarism.html
Trivedi, Lisa, and Sharon Williams. "Using Sources." Hamilton College Writ-
ing Center, www.hamilton.edu/academics/resource/wc/usingsources.html
"Turnitin Research Resources." www.turnitin.com
U. of Alberta. "Guide to Plagiarism and Cyber-Plagiarism" and "Why Students
Plagiarize." www.library.ualberta.ca/guides/plagiarism/
Writing Tutorial Services, Indiana U. "Plagiarism: What It is and How to Rec-
ognize and Avoid It." www.indiana.edu/~wts/wts/plagiarism.html
"Your Multigenre Web: Everything you need to know to succeed." www.she-
boyganfalls.kl2.wi.us/cyberenglish9/multi_genre/multigenre.htm
Media Resources
"Avoiding Plagiarism" (video). "Research Skills for Students" series. Wyn-
newood, PA: Schlessinger Media, 2004. www.libraryvideo.com/sm/sm_
home, asp
212
Part IV
USING TECHNOLOGY
WITH INTEGRITY
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Honesty in Online Education
But it is also advisable to structure multiple opportunities for assessing

student learning into a course in addition to—or even in place of—exami-
nations. Depending upon the subject matter of the course, small group proj-
ects, case studies, simulations, portfolios, learning contracts, and group
discussions can all be appropriate and effective tools for determining how
well your students are learning. And all of these activities are readily adapt-
able to the online settings. (McNett)
Five years ago, Student Cheating and Plagiarism in the Internet Era: A Wake-
Up Call (Libraries Unlimited, 2000) had less than two pages about distance learn-
ing. The subject merits much more attention today.
Many thousands of students around the world are enrolled in online education.
The National Center for Education Statistics recently published the first major
national survey on the extent of online education in K-12 schools, Distance Edu-
cation Courses for Public Elementary and Secondary School Students: 2002-03.
It reports on the rapid growth of online education and ongoing plans for expan-
sion in more than half of the districts surveyed. Selected data are included in this
chapter as a COPY ME page.
There are many reasons to welcome this growth; the potential benefits of on-
line education are tremendous. There also is concern about the potential for cheat-
ing inherent in the delivery of instruction to students who complete class work
and take tests in largely unsupervised settings. The concerns about cheating are
valid and are the focus of this chapter.
References
McNett, Mike. "Curbing Academic Dishonesty in Online Courses" (Pointers &
Clickers, May/June 2002). http://illinois.online.uillinois.edu/resources/point-
ersclickers/2002_05/index.asp.
Resources
Article:
Virgil Varvel: "Integrity in Online Education"
COPY ME pages:
Distance Education Courses for Public Elementary and Secondary School Students:
2002-03
Online Learning—Technical Information
the Internet Era: A Wake-Up Call: Chapter 2, High-Tech Cheating; Chapter 5: High-
Tech Defenses Against Cheating and Plagiarism.
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Distance Education Courses for Public Elementary and Secondary

School Students: 2002-03
This report was published by the National Center for Education Statistics and is
available online at nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2005010. The fol-
lowing statistics are quoted from the Summary section:
• During the 2002-03 12-month school year, about one-third of public
school districts (36 percent) had students in the district enrolled in dis-
tance education courses.
• A greater proportion of large districts than medium or small districts had
students enrolled in distance education courses [and] a greater propor-
tion of districts located in rural areas than in suburban or urban indicated
that they had students enrolled in distance education.
• An estimated 8,200 public schools had students enrolled in distance educa-
tion courses.... approximately 9 percent of all public schools nationwide.
• Overall, 38 percent of public high schools offered distance education
courses, compared with 20 percent of combined or ungraded schools, 4
percent of middle or junior high schools, and fewer than 1 percent of el-
ementary schools.
• Among all public schools with students enrolled in distance education,
76 percent were high schools, 15 percent were combined or ungraded
schools, 7 percent were middle or junior high schools, and 2 percent
were elementary schools.
• More districts reported two-way interactive video (55 percent) or Inter-
net courses using asynchronous computer-based instruction (47 percent)
than Internet courses using synchronous computer-based instruction (21
percent), one-way prerecorded video (16 percent), or some other tech-
nology (4 percent) as a primary mode of delivery.
• In both urban and suburban districts, Internet courses using asynchronous
computer-based instruction was the technology cited most often as a pri-
mary delivery instructional delivery mode for distance education courses.
• Fifty-nine percent of districts with students enrolled in distance education
courses had students enrolled in online distance education courses (i.e.,
courses delivered over the Internet) in 2002-03.
• Seventy-two percent of districts with students enrolled in distance edu-
cation courses planned to expand their distance education courses in the
future. (Setzer and Lewis, pp. 4-15)
[Setzer, J.C., and Lewis, L. (2005). Distance Education Courses for Public Elementary and Secondary
School Students: 2002-93 (NCES 2005-010) U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: Na-
tional Center for Education Statistics, nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2005010.]
Reprinted with permission of the authors: Guiding Students from Cheating and Plagiarism to Honesty
and Integrity: Strategies for Change, by Ann Lathrop and Kathleen Foss (Libraries Unlimited, 2005).
Permission is granted to make print copies for class instruction, discussion groups, workshops, con-
ferences, or newsletters. This material must not be placed on a Web site or distributed in any digital
217
Integrity in Online Education
Virgil Varvel
The explosive growth of the Internet has fundamentally altered the face of distance
education. In the short time since graphical user interfaces revolutionized the World
Wide Web, the Internet has become the predominant distance education medium,
outpacing other distance delivery modes. According to the National Center for Edu-
cation Statistics (NCES), "During the 1990s, distance education availability, course
offerings, and enrollments increased rapidly" (NCES, 2001). Within the state of
Illinois for example, dramatic growth trends are evident in online education data
gathered by the Illinois Virtual Campus (IVC, 2002) and more recently by the Il-
linois Virtual High School, according to Matthew Wicks, Director of Virtual Learn-
ing (personal communication, September 1, 2004). Online education, or education
utilizing networked information technologies as the primary mode of instructional
delivery, is a force that almost certainly will continue to grow.
The potential of online education cannot be denied. Students whose needs are
not being met by the traditional classroom can achieve a more equitable or com-
plete education at a distance. Home-schooled children can access lessons, seek
out experts, interact with other students, and take courses beyond the abilities or
time of their parents. Special needs children can attend school without requiring
mobility and in an environment where their disability may not even be appar-
ent. Advanced students can more easily take courses not offered at their schools.
Online education can include advanced simulations, readings that don't require
expensive books and loaded student backpacks, and multimedia distributed via
the Web or on digital media through postal mail. Other examples exist, but clearly
online education has value.
As online education has grown, so too, unfortunately, has the concern over
academic honesty in this new environment. However, a key to successful online
programs has been a shift away from traditional teaching methods towards an
interactive, student-centered paradigm (Elbaum, 2002; Ko, 2001; White, 2000).
Honesty in Online Education 219
Successful courses develop a sense of community among the students, with ev-
eryone contributing to the learning process.
The collaborative nature of online teaching and the use of assignment alterna-
tives such as portfolios, online group work, and discussion exercises have benefits
beyond student learning. Students can become more motivated and more involved
with the learning process to the extent that participation and learning will out-
weigh academic honesty issues. While administrators must consider online as-
sessment validity and teachers may remain concerned about student cheating, a
properly designed course should reduce these concerns so that more attention may
be paid to instruction and student learning.
Despite these thoughts, some resistance to online education continues to be
based on a belief (whether true or not) that cheating online is too easy (Rowe,
2004). A teacher cannot know what the students are bringing to the assessment
table, whether it is other students, parents, or even paid helpers (Olt, 2002). Stu-
dents may also bring books, notes, and the entire Internet. All online assessments
essentially become open book in nature. But life itself is open book. As a result
perhaps of necessity, online education can shift instruction away from the mul-
tiple-choice exam and towards more authentic assessments. Knowledge can be
explored in a discussion where every student has the opportunity to participate.
When appropriate, though, teachers should not be afraid to use any type of
exam, even multiple-choice, in an online course. Computerized testing tools con-
tinue to grow in usability and functionality; they can help to make cheating on
computerized tests perhaps more difficult than on face-to-face exams in some re-
spects. Advanced testing tools and online course management systems can allow
questions to be randomly selected from large question pools, providing each stu-
dent with a different test. Mathematical values can be randomized among stu-
dents. Test-taking time can be strictly limited to a specific day or even a specific
time of day. Passwords can be used that students are given only immediately prior
to the test through a specific e-mail address or even the telephone in an effort to
make sure the correct person is taking the exam. Test submissions can be limited
so each student only has one opportunity to take the assessment (Rowe, 2004).
On a more technical note, an assignment submission can be tracked by looking
at the IP number from which it was submitted. While these numbers may change,
they should remain within a relatively small range for a given computer. Without
proper safeguards, Olt (2002) argues that it may be possible for students to take
the same assessment more than once or even steal poorly protected online as-
sessment documents. However, obtaining answers is equally easy in a classroom
when a teacher leaves an answer key out on a desk, or students copy from one
another during an exam. Modern course management systems for online edu-
cation possess good security provided teachers and students maintain password
standards. It is more likely that a student will catch a glimpse of an answer in a
face-to-face exam than an online one.
When measures must be taken to insure student identity and materials used, sev-
eral methods can aid in increasing academic honesty. The most common method is
to require students to attend a proctored exam session at a local school (ION, 2004;
McNett, 2002; Rowe, 2004; Shyles, 2002). So while you can never be absolutely
certain the person completing online assignments is the person signed up for the
course, it is possible to determine identity at set assessments by using proctors.
The likelihood of a student being able to continually acquire help to complete tests
and other assessments throughout an online course is low. Another suggestion to
make unpermitted help more difficult to obtain is to apply many mini-assessments
throughout a course. Eventually a discrepancy will show up in quality or quantity of
work/participation, alerting a teacher to a possible problem.
A more realistic conception about online education is that the potential for
cheating online is probably no different than that in face-to-face education (Gri-
jalva, 2003; Kaczmarczyk, 2001). Kaczmarczyk found that students and faculty
originally believed that it was easier to cheat through online education; having
experienced online education, they were equally divided (2001).
In fact, the distance separating online students may actually reduce peer-to-
peer cheating from a practical standpoint. Sharing answers with other students on-
line requires more than a glance over one's shoulder. Students may be unwilling
to request unpermitted assistance or answers from a student they do not know per-
sonally. They may fear being reported to the teacher by other students, especially
if they signed some form of honor code at the beginning of the class (Shyles,
2002). It takes time to determine who the best students are when there is no prior
knowledge of classmates, so students do not know who to cheat from at first. By
the time they do know, they have already worked hard enough to complete previ-
ous assignments successfully and may no longer feel an academic need to cheat
during the rest of the course.
Independent of whether cheating is any easier or harder in an online environ-
ment, is it actually occurring? Unfortunately, we know that cheating overall is
increasing for all modes of delivery in both face-to-face and online classrooms
(Rowe, 2004; Stephens, 2004). Furthermore, the likelihood of students using
the Internet for assignment completion or other cheating is no different in online
courses than in face-to-face courses for any assignment that students may com-
plete on their own time (Grijalva, 2003).
There does not appear to be anything specific to online education that enables
or encourages students to cheat any more than in a face-to-face classroom. Nei-
ther does online education give students new reasons to cheat. The reasons for
cheating (and perhaps not cheating) appear to be mostly the same between tra-
ditional education and face-to-face education (McMurtry, 2001; Slobogin, 2002;
Stephens, 2004).
As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Promot-
ing integrity is more effective than policing it. The first measure of honesty pres-
ervation in an online course (and perhaps any course) is educating the students
about cheating and plagiarism issues.
Sometimes students cheat without realizing that what they are doing is wrong.
This problem may be exacerbated in an online course when many students and
even the teachers are unfamiliar with online copyright issues or when copying
from the Web wrong; they must learn when and how to use a proper method for
citing electronic resources. The asynchronous nature of online education means
that you do not have to take up class time in order to inform students about these
issues. The information can be presented in an online orientation prior to or at the
beginning of a class or education program. Unlike the limits of a printed pam-
phlet, students can access online examples at any time and an expert is available
to help when questions arise.
Techniques used to prevent dishonesty in the traditional classroom can be
equally effective in the online classroom. Interestingly, some preventions can be
used in an online course that may not be as easily available in a traditional class-
room. In addition to features of the testing programs already discussed, online
education provides teachers with the opportunity to get to know the students well
through constant written discourse. Experienced teachers know one key to recog-
nizing cheating or plagiarism is to become familiar with a student's writing style.
A paper or test that is far above the student's usual ability level alerts the teacher
to possible dishonesty. The fact that all assignments are submitted in digital for-
mat also facilitates the use of online plagiarism detection services.
Online teachers do not have to limit their interaction with the students to writ-
ten text. Audio technology has advanced to a usable stage on the Internet, and
many programs are now available for recording and transmitting audio. Students
in an online course can be required to complete all or part of an exam or assess-
ment orally and then send the file in some manner to the teacher. The assessment
can be directly tied to the student's voice. This can be improved even more when
appropriate time limits are used in online assessments. As discussed with online
tests, test-taking time can be strictly limited to a specific day or even a specific
time of day just as in a traditional classroom. These limits can make it difficult
for someone to script what the student would need to repeat in the audio in time
to complete the exam.
Many if not all of the techniques described in this chapter are made easier
through the use of course management systems (CMS), also known as learning
management systems. Some of the more commonly used include WebCT (www.
webct.com), BlackBoard (www.blackboard.com), and Moodle—a free open-
source CMS (www.moodle.org). The Western Cooperative for Educational Tele-
communications (2004) has compiled a thorough and useful reference of CMS
and their diverse features. Both synchronous and asynchronous discussions can
be moderated. Testing and grading can be coordinated and in some cases auto-
mated. The exact time of assignment submission can be determined by the date
stamp placed on uploaded documents. Even the delivery of content can be con-
trolled by time, achievement, order, and modality. All of these features exist in an
easy to navigate and, more importantly, secure online system.
As all teachers know, the most effective means to limit cheating in any learning
environment remains that of getting to know your students. Through the open dis-
course in an online course, teachers learn a great deal about their students and can
share much about themselves. The development of community, sharing work when
sharing is appropriate, and building on one another's knowledge can all serve to
provide an atmosphere of learning where every student feels like a contributor.
In the end, fear not. By taking the necessary precautions and through effective
course design, online education can be both conducive to learning and to aca-
demic honesty among students.
References
Elbaum, B., Mclntyre, C , & Smith, A.. (2002). Essential elements: Prepare, de-
sign, and teach your online course. Madison, WI: Atwood Publishing.
Grijalva, T.C., Kerkvliet, J., & Nowell, C. (2003). Academic honesty and online
courses. Retrieved September 1, 2004, from oregonstate.edu/dept/econ/pdf/
cheat.online.pap6.pdf
Illinois Online Network (ION). (2004). Strategies to minimize cheating online.
Retrieved September 19, 2004, from http://illinois.online.uillinois.edu/re-
sources/tutorials/assessment/cheating.asp
Illinois Virtual Campus (IVC). (2002). Reports and re sources. Retrieved October 18,
2004, from www.ivc.illinois.edu/pubs/enrollment.html?customerid=21877
Kaczmarczyk, L.C. (2001). Accreditation and student assessment in distance
education: Why we all need to pay attention. Proceedings of the 6th Annual
Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education.
Canterbury, UK, 113-16.
Ko, S., & Rossen, S. (2001). Teaching online—A practical guide. Boston, MA:
Houghton Mifflin Co.
McMurtry, K. (2001). "E-cheating: Combating a 21st century challenge." THE
Journal Online 29(4). Retrieved September 1, 2004, from www.thejournal.
com/magazine/vault/articleprintversion.cfm?aid=3724
McNett, M. (2002). "Curbing academic dishonesty in online courses." Pointers
and Clickers: ION's Technology Tip of the Month. Retrieved September 19,
2004, from www.webct.com/service/ViewContent?contentID=2451803
National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). (2001). A profile of participa-
tion in distance education: 1999-2000. Report. Retrieved September 5, 2004,
from nces.ed.gov/das/epubs/2003154/index.aspOlson, B. (n.d.). IPtoLL. Re-
trieved September 1, 2004, from www-unix.mcs.anl.gov/-olson/IPtoLL.html
Olt, M. (2002). "Ethics and distance education: strategies for minimizing aca-
demic dishonesty in online assessment." Online Journal of Distance Team-
ing Administration 5(3). Retrieved September 1, 2004, from www.westga.
edu/~distance/ojdla/fall53/olt53.html
Rowe, N. C. (2004). "Cheating in online student assessment: Beyond plagiarism."
Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 7(2). Retrieved Septem-
ber 5, 2004, from www.westga.edu/-distance/ojdla/summer72/rowe72.html
Shyles, L. (2002). Authenticating, identifying, and monitoring learners in the vir-
tual classroom: Academic integrity in distance learning. Paper presented at
the 88th Annual Meeting of the National Communication Association. New

Orleans, LA, Nov. 21-24, 2002. (ED 472807)
Slobogin, K. (2002). Survey: Many students say cheating's OK. Retrieved Sep-
tember 1, 2004, from www.cnn.com/2002/fyi/teachers.ednews/04/05/high-
school.cheating/
Stephens, J. (2004). Justice or just us? What to do about cheating. Retrieved
September 1, 2004, from www.carnegiefoundation.org/perspectives/perspec-
tives2004.May.htm
Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications (WCET). (2004).
Course management systems: Edutools. Retrieved October 18, from www.
edutool s. info/course/index.j sp
White, K.E., & Weight, B.H. (2000). The online teaching guide: A handbook of
attitudes, strategies, and techniques for the virtual classroom. Boston, MA:
Allyn & Bacon.
Note to readers in search of more technical information:

• Rowe discusses the design of a large pool from which random test
questions can be drawn, ways that students may attempt to circumvent
password protections and other security features of online classroom
management systems, and other techniques used to maintain testing in-
tegrity.
• Shyles examines a variety of biometric approaches to identify students
enrolled in online classes.
• Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications (WCET)
evaluates Course Management Systems.
Information at Illinois Online Network (ION)

www.webct.com/service/ViewContent?contentID=2451805180
• Pointers & Clickers www.webct.com/service/ViewContent?contentID=
2451803
• Online Education Resources www.webct.com/service/ViewContent7con
tentID=2451803
• Student Assessment in Online Courses
• Quizzing, Testing, and Homework on the Internet
• Strategies to Minimize Cheating Online
• Curbing Academic Dishonesty in Online Courses
[Virgil Varvel is the Computer Assisted Instruction Specialist at Illinois Virtual Campus,
Illinois Online Network, University of Illinois at www.ion.illinois.edu. Vvarvel@uillinois.
edu]
COPY ME
Online Learning—Technical Information
Virgil Varvel
Rowe discusses the design of a large pool from which random test questions can
be drawn, ways that students may attempt to circumvent password protections,
and other security features of online classroom management systems.
Rowe, N. C. "Cheating in Online Student Assessment: Beyond Plagiarism."
Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 7(2), 2004. www.
westga.edu/-distance/ojdla/summer72/rowe72.html
Shyles examines a variety of biometric approaches to identify students in online
classes.
Shyles, L. "Authenticating, Identifying, and Monitoring Learners in the Virtual
Classroom: Academic Integrity in Distance Learning. 2002. (ED 472807)
Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications (WCET) evaluates
Course Management Systems.
Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications (WCET). Course
Management Systems: Edutools. 2004. www.edutools.info/course/index.jsp
A selection of Course Management Systems (CMS)

• WebCT www.webct.com
• BlackBoard www.blackboard.com
• Moodle www.moodle.org—a free open-source CMS
Information at Illinois Online Network (ION) (www.webct.com/service/Vie

wContent?contentID=2451803
• Pointers & Clickers ( www.webct.com/service/ViewContent7contentID
=2451803)
• Online Education Resources ( www.webct.com/service/ViewContent?
contentID=2451803)
• Student Assessment in Online Courses
• Quizzing, Testing, and Homework on the Internet
• Strategies to Minimize Cheating Online
• Curbing Academic Dishonesty in Online Courses
[Virgil Varvel is the Computer Assisted Instruction Specialist at Illinois Virtual Campus,
Illinois Online Network, University of Illinois at www.ion.illinois.edu.Vvarvel@uillinois.
edu]
224
CHAPTER TWELVE
Keeping Technology Honest

Jacquie Henry
When a kid finishes his test, he takes a picture with his cellphone of the test
and the answers. His friend takes the phone into the test a later period and
uses picture on phone for answers. Can get any answers they don yt know in
time between tests. Students also copy the test with picture phone and put
the test online for everyone. 11th grade boy
With a cellphone, you can take a picture of the test page with your answers
and send it to a friend. Take your cell phone to the restroom to send test or
to get answers to questions. Use text messaging phone to phone to ask for
answers to questions. 7th grade girl
Students use their cellphones for text messaging with the phone out of sight
under the desk. Everybody has a phone. 6th grade girl
To deny students all access to technologies is a futile attempt to turn back the
clock. We must prepare students for their future, not our past, and their future
will increasingly be wireless. (Fryer, par. 6)
The best two devices for stopping cheating are the teacher's eyes and ears.
(Ladewig)
These quotes point out the dilemma facing today's teachers. Our students have
seamlessly integrated the power of computers, the Internet, and wireless technol-
ogy into their everyday lives. Some of them will use the technology to cheat, just
as they have been using low-tech cheating methods for centuries.
How can we, as teachers, discourage high-tech cheating, while still supporting
high-tech creativity and productivity? First, it is important to avoid engaging in a
tech war with students. Instead, as we become more familiar with the new technol-
ogy and use it in our classrooms, we will realize that many of the techniques used
to prevent "traditional" cheating work just as well to prevent high-tech cheating.

In the end, teaching our students to listen to their conscience continues to be the
most powerful preventative measure.
Part I: Technology the Students are Using

PWDs (Portable Wireless Devices)
Small handheld computers such as PDAs and Blackberries are equipped with
personal information management (PIM) software, SMS (Short Messaging Ser-
vice), and an infrared transmitter that allows users to send and receive text files
or applications. A newer technology, known as Bluetooth or WPAN (Wireless
Personal Area Network) uses wireless radio frequency to connect computer pe-
ripherals and handheld devices to each other and/or to the Internet (Bluetooth,
par. 4). Many handheld computers have built-in digital cameras. Watches come
with both PDA and camera capability. Language translator PWDs can translate
numerous languages but generally are more limited in other functions.
How this technology can be used to cheat or plagiarize: Students store large
amounts of information to access during a test. They communicate with others
inside or outside the testing area via infrared transmitters or use Bluetooth tech-
nology to connect to the Internet via a cell phone. Devices with built-in digital
cameras let students take digital pictures of a test and share it with friends.
Language translators can be used to cheat on foreign language tests and home-
work.
Programmable Calculators (Graphic Calculators)

A portable, handheld calculator can handle a broad range of mathematical or
scientific applications from algebra through calculus, including interactive ge-
ometry, symbolic manipulation, statistics, and 3D graphing. It also can display
text, and the newest models have enough memory to load software and a USB
port to connect to a PC (Kantor, par. 9-10). "The graphic calculators also allow
students to use statistical applications in many non-traditional ways" (Nau). The
Tl-Navigator is a wireless device that allows a teacher to communicate with all
the graphic calculators in the classroom (Joyner, par. 23). This device also could
be used to detect other calculators being used in a testing situation.
How this technology can be used to cheat or plagiarize: The graphic calcu-
lator is useful for cheating in any class where tests ask for dates, formulas, lists
of any type, or other data that students were expected to memorize. Students
can enter the test questions and answers into their own calculator to share with
students in later classes. Two or more students sharing a calculator during a test
can leave answers visible for each other. Students can also transmit information
to each other during tests via infrared technology.
Keeping Technology Honest 227
Cell Phones I Camera Phones I Pagers

Many cell phones provide information storage, text messaging, calendars, cal-
culators, e-mail, games, Internet access, cameras, and other related services. Pag-
ers can be used to send questions and receive numeric or full-text messages.
How this technology can be used to cheat or plagiarize: Students can send
and receive text messages to and from someone inside or outside the testing
area. Camera phones can be used to distribute a digital picture of the test to
other students. Students can bring cell phones or other handheld devices to the
restroom during tests to look up answers on the Internet, solve equations, share
test questions, or phone a friend for answers. Cell phones with calculators can
be used during math tests (State, par. 10). Students can preprogram their pagers
with all the information needed during the test and share information during the
exam.
CD and MP3 Players I Portable Data

Storage Devices I Cassette Tape Players
CD & MP3 players such as Walkmans and iPods are used primarily to save and
listen to music. CD players can play both commercial and home-recorded CDs.
MP3 players have very large storage capacity and can be used as a sort of portable
hard drive, allowing students to record voice messages, store photos, keep an ap-
pointment calendar, or play audio books or games. Information needed for a test
can be recorded onto a cassette tape.
Portable Data Storage Devices (flash drives, digital pen scanners, memory
sticks, eye monitor glasses, etc.) are designed to allow large amounts of com-
puter data to be moved from one computer to another. The data is not transmitted
wirelessly. Instead, these devices are connected directly to a computer, laptop,
or handheld device (What, par. 1). With 20 gigabytes or more of memory, these
devices can store large amounts of all kinds of data.
How this technology can be used to cheat or plagiarize: Students can use
these devices to record all the information they need for a test as text, an audio
recording, or even a photo. Small earphones concealed by a scarf or long hair can
be used to access any audio information. Eye monitor glasses are "immediately
connectable to any device with a video composite output.... Your video cable
has just to be connected, no particular setting is required. You can now read any
media-information while walking down the street" (Eye, par. 8). Pen scanners can
be used to copy a test for students who will take it later in the day.
E-mail I Instant Messaging (IM) I

Chat Rooms I Faxes and Scanners
With its ability to send text and also attach files and photos, e-mail has become
one of the most frequently used forms of communication at all age levels, for
business, educational, and personal use. Instant Messaging allows teenagers to

communicate in real time by creating a "buddy list." Teenagers also use IM to
create chat rooms where they can chat with each other in real time.
Scanners are used to transfer images and text into a computer. These photos
and text can then be altered as desired. The scanned files can be printed, used on
Web pages, and e-mailed from one computing device to another. Fax machines
are used to send copies of documents over phone lines. Many computers and
printers come equipped with both faxing and scanning capabilities.
How this technology can be used to cheat or plagiarize: Students use e-mail,
instant messaging, chat rooms, scanners, and faxes to share research papers and
homework. Faxes and scanners are useful for sharing handwritten assignments
such as math problems or drawings. Students who borrow research papers from
friends instead of purchasing one from an online "paper mill" not only save
money, but are less likely to get caught. It is harder for a teacher to spot a plagia-
rized paper that is written at a student level.
Blogs
A world of information is now open to the Internet-connected classroom. Blogs
(Web logs) are online journals usually written by a single individual. Blogging soft-
ware allows students to create and post their blogs with little or no knowledge of
html. "The tools that most bloggers use make it incredibly easy to add entries any
time they feel like it" (Brain, par. 6). Blogs are very popular with teenagers as well
as educators, journalists, and people in every walk of life. A classroom blog that is
managed according to guidelines set by the teacher can be a valuable study aid.
Examples of blogs with educational purposes:

School Blogs. www.schoolblogs.com/
Weblogg-ed. www.weblogg-ed.com/
BlogPulse (a search engine for blogs). www.blogpulse.com/
How this technology can be used to cheat or plagiarize: Students use their
blogs to share homework or other assignments, answer questions for one another,
and post copies of old tests with answers.
School Computer Networks I Wireless Networks

Networks allow school computers and peripherals to communicate with each
other and allow large numbers of users to share programs and files efficiently.
Wireless networks allow computers and handheld computers to be moved any-
where in the building and still be able to access applications, files, and the In-
ternet.
How this technology can be used to cheat or plagiarize: Students who will be
taking tests on desktop or laptop computers can save their notes to their student
network files. As they are taking the test, they simply open these files to read or,
if they are really bold, to copy and paste information into their test. They also can
connect to the Internet, online encyclopedias, and research databases to locate
answers. Students can use free translation programs on the Internet to do their
homework in foreign language classes or to cheat on foreign language tests. A
wireless Internet connection will allow students to tap into the Internet using their
PDAs and other handheld devices. Hackers may gain access to a teacher's elec-
tronic grade book to change grades or obtain an advance copy of a test. Wireless
networks that are not properly secured become easy prey to viruses planted by
disgruntled students.
Part II: Discouraging Cheating on Tests

Prohibit the use of all electronic devices during testing. They must be in a
backpack, purse, or on the teacher's desk. Announce that any electronic device
seen in the room during testing, whether being used or not, will be confiscated and
held for a parent conference, and a failing grade will be assigned for that test. This
policy should be in writing in the district or school Academic Integrity Policy,
included in the class syllabus, and printed on the first page of each major test.
Control access to technology devices

• Limit calculator use during a test to only those calculators that belong
to a classroom set. Remove batteries to be sure the memories have been
erased in case students entered test answers, formulas, and so on, when
they had access to the calculators before the test.
• Ask students to remove their watches and leave them with the teacher
while in the testing area.
• Allow only school-owned pens to be used.
• Locate and monitor any Web sites, chat rooms, or blogs being used by
your students to share class information and assignments; be sure tests
are not posted at the site.
• Disconnect all computers being used for testing from access to the school
network or Internet.
• Arrange to temporarily block network drives so students do not have ac-
cess to their files. Test files can then be saved onto disks to be collected
by the teacher.
Keep tests secure

• Be scrupulous about maintaining test security, keeping tests away from
prying eyes or cameras, especially when the same test will be given to
later classes.
• Guard your passwords and change them frequently. Never leave a com-
puter unattended without logging out first. To stop hackers, schools can
do away with passwords completely by installing biometric devices (fin-
gerprint recognition devices).
What to watch for during testing

• Constantly patrol the classroom during a test, alert for high-tech cheating
and also for cheat sheets or other traditional cheating methods.
• Students who frequently check their pockets, purses, or laps, or who
fumble with baggy clothing, may be using an electronic device (or read-
ing a more traditional cheat sheet).
• Notice students who may be "pointing" a calculator or other device at
another student to send or receive information electronically.
• Students using headsets or earphones may have taped their notes or other
information for the test. New earphones are very small and easy to con-
ceal, especially for students with long hair or who wear a cap, scarf, or
other head covering.
• Students who check their watches frequently may be using a PDA/pager/
camera watch.
• Students using a digital pen scanner may be copying the test for other
students.
• Look for eye monitor glasses, ones with a relatively large device mounted
on one side.
• Look for portable data storage devices that are plugged into USB ports.
USB or flash drives are small enough to fit on a key chain and also come
built into watches and even Swiss Army knives. Also check CD and
floppy drives (Gadgets, par. 1).
• Listen for "tapping fingers and electronic beeps" (Shaw, par. 7).
• Watch for screen distortions on computer monitors, an indication that a cell
phone is being used in the room (Chapman, par. 2).
• Students with several program windows open at the same time may be
reading their notes or checking a Web site or online encyclopedia. Never
allow more than one open program window at a time.
A teacher's anti-cheating toolbox

"Academic Dishonesty Prevention and Detection Strategies" at www.iub.
eduMeaching/cheating.shtml provides many techniques for recognizing
and preventing cheating on tests and homework.
ExamSoft Worldwide at www.examsoft.com "provides academic exami-
nation software solutions for all levels of learning... encompassing all
elements of the examination process examination software solutions
ranging from the traditional single classroom examination format to se-

cure Internet examination systems for Distance Learning Programs."
For multiple-choice tests, use Scantron PDA quiz program (Schools, par.
20). www.scantron.com/products/wizard/
Electronic bug detectors and cell phone jammers can be used to detect the
use of handheld devices, cell phones, or similar devices in a classroom
(Crowley). This equipment can be very expensive.
The Tl-Navigator is a wireless device that allows a teacher to communicate
with all the graphic calculators in the classroom (Joyner, par. 23). This
device could also be used to detect calculators being used in a testing
area.
"Scrutiny" and similar software programs can analyze tests and produce
reports that indicate suspicious similarities (Cizek 67-69).
Biometric devices are being developed that can check student identity.
www.digitalpersona.com and techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/
main/0,14179,2818323,00.html
Author's note: Also see Chapters 9 and 10 for information on electronic pla-
giarism and its prevention. See Appendix C for related information in Student
Cheating and Plagiarism in the Internet Era: A Wake-Up Call: Chapter 2, High-
Tech Cheating; Chapter 3, Electronic Plagiarism; Chapter 5, High-Tech Defenses
Against Cheating and Plagiarism.
Works Cited
"Bluetooth." Fact Index.com. Wikipedia.com. www.fact-index.com/b/bl/blue
tooth.html
Brain, Marshall. "How Blogs Work." HowStuffWorks.com. computers.how
stuffworks.com/blog.htm
Chapman, Claire. "Cheats Who Phone a Friend Caught On Screen." Times Higher
Education Supplement. 21 May 2004: www.thes.co.uk/search/search_results.
aspx?search=cheats+who+phone+a+friend+caught+on+screen&mode=both&
search Year=&searchMonth=
Cizek, Gregory J. Detecting and Preventing Classroom Cheating. Thousand Oaks,
CA: Corwin Press, Inc, 2003.
Crowley, Robert, Manager of Spy Outlet, Henrietta, NY. Personal interview. 13
July 2004.
"Eye Monitor Glasses." 4 Hidden Spy Cameras, www.4hiddenspycameras.com/
eyeglmo.html
Fryer, Wesley A. "The Opportunities and Challenges of Wireless Computing."
tech.Learning. 1 January 2003. www.techlearning.com/db_area/archives/
WCE/archives/weswire.html
"Gadgets: Geek Tools." ThinkGeek. c.2004. www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/tools
Joyner, Amy. "A Foothold for Handhelds." asbj.com. September 2003. Ameri-
can School Board Journal. www.asbj.com/specialreports/0903SpecialReports/
S3.html
Kantor, Andrew. "CyberSpeak: Cheating Goes High-Tech With Commonplace
Tools". USA Today. 5/21/2004. www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/andrew
kantor/2004-05-21 -kantor_x.htm
Ladewig, Joanne. "Catching Cheaters." 6 July 2004. E-mail to John Henry. 14
July 2004.
Nau, Lori. Personal interview. 10 September 2004.
"Schools Rule On Classroom Gadgets." Wired News. 21 September 2003. Associ-
ated Press, www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,60527,00.html
Shaw, Rob. "Cheating Students Go High-Tech." Rense.com. 11 June 2004. www.
rense.com/general53/cheat.htm
"State May Ban Electronic Devices During M-CAS Testing." Boston Globe. 15
June 2004. Associated Press, www.boston.com/business/articles/2004/06/15/
"What Is Portable Data Storage?" Becta ICT Advice For Teachers. 2004. www.
ictadvice.org.uk/index.php?section=te&catcode=as_ds_02&rid=667
Copyright statement: This entire article is copyrighted 2005 by Jacquie Henry and can-
not be copied in whole or in part in any print or digital format, or placed on any Web site,
without the written permission of the author.
[Jacquie Henry, MLS, Ruben A. Cirillo High School, Gananda Central School District,
Walworth, New York. She is the author of "The Tangled Web—Holding the MP3 Genera-
tion Accountable" {Library Media Connection, March 2004) and "Schools & The Internet:
The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly," an online and expanded version of the material in-
cluded in this book. This online article and her faculty workshop on Plagiarism and Cheat-
ing are available at www.gananda.org/library/mshslibrary/plagiarism.htm. Her library
home page is www.gananda.org/library/mshslibrary/indexgcl.htm.]
PartV
APPENDICES
APPENDIX A
National Surveys on Student

Cheating and Plagiarism
Josephson Institute of Ethics: "Report Card 2004: The Ethics of American

Youth"
Donald McCabe: "Cheating: Why Students Do It and How We Can Make Them
Stop"
COPY ME
Report Card 2004:

The Ethics of American Youth
Josephson Institute of Ethics
"Though the Report Card on the Integrity of American Youth continues to contain
failing grades, there is reason for hope. For the first time in 12 years the cheating
and theft rates have actually dipped downward and the stated devotion to ethics
is the strongest we've seen. While this results in a troubling inconsistency be-
tween words and actions, character education efforts should be able to build on
the fundamental appreciation of ethics, character and trust to achieve continuing
improvements in conduct. Still, it can't be comforting to know that the majority
of the next generation of police officers, politicians, accountants, lawyers, doc-
tors, nuclear inspectors and journalists are entering the workforce as unrepentant
cheaters."
This comment by Michael Josephson is from Report Card 2004: The Ethics of
American Youth* The Josephson Institute of Ethics surveys high school students
and publishes the resulting Report Card every two years. The 2004 results are
based on responses from 24,763 high school students in 85 U.S. high schools.
My parents/guardians would rather I cheat than get bad grades.
Strongly Agree/Agree 91% Disagree/Strongly Disagree 9%
My parents/guardians always want me to do the ethically right thing, no
matter what the cost.
Strongly Agree/Agree 6% Disagree/Strongly Disagree 94%
Copied an Internet document for a classroom assignment [in the past
year].
At Least Once 35% Two or More Times 18%
Cheated during a test at school [in the past year].
u
Cheated or bent the rules" to win in sports [in the past year].
*Complete survey data for this 2004 report, the 2002 and 2000 reports, and
other earlier reports are online at http://josephsoninstitute.org/Survey2004/
[Michael Josephson is founder and President/CEO of the Josephson Institute of Ethics,

sponsor of CHARACTER COUNTS! online at www.charactercounts.org and www.joseph-
soninstitute.org.]
placed on a web site or distributed in any digital format. This statement must appear in its
236
Cheating: Why Students Do It and
How We Can Help Them Stop
(abridged, see below for complete article online)
Donald McCabe
School cheating is not news. Parents and teachers have been worrying about it
for generations. Unfortunately, there is evidence that cheating has increased in
the last few decades, and the Internet is likely to intensify the problem. It's also
unfortunate that the people who worry about cheating often contribute to it. Well-
intentioned parents who want their children to be successful in school can place so
much pressure on the kids that they resort to cheating. Students believe that many
teachers who see cheating look the other way, sending the message that cheat-
ing is acceptable. To which a teacher might reply, with considerable justice, that
School Boards, superintendents, and principals often fail to back them up when
they are faced with angry parents whose child has been accused of cheating. And
almost daily, the media give big play to all kinds of cheating carried out by adults
in positions of authority: politicians, lawyers, business people, clergy, and educa-
tors. As a high school junior recently observed: "Cheating is the American way.
Businessmen do it, politicians do it. Why not students?" Indeed, the student who
does not cheat now seems to be the exception in many schools.
This past year, I surveyed 2,294 high school juniors at 25 schools across the
country—14 public schools and 11 private schools. The results were discourag-
ing. Many students told me they know cheating is wrong, and they are not proud
of their behavior. However, they feel they have to cheat to get the grades they
need. On the other hand, student comments led me to believe that many students
who are self-confessed cheaters would be willing partners in any reasonable strat-
egy to deal with the most serious kinds of cheating.
The prevalence of cheating

Whatever we might want to believe, the evidence is unequivocal. The problem
starts early and increases as students move through school. It has also increased
238 Appendix A
significantly at almost every level of our educational system in the last few de-
cades. My recent survey of 2,294 high school juniors confirms earlier findings
and indicates that high levels of cheating are a nationwide phenomenon. Table 1
presents some of my basic findings.
Table 1: Common Forms of Cheating Among High School Juniors
% indicates number of students self-reporting one or more incidents of this behavior

Copied from another on test/exam 63%
Used crib notes on test/exam 39%
Got questions/answers from someone who had taken test 77%
Helped someone cheat on test/exam 60%
Copied almost word for word from a source and submitted 34%
as own work
Turned in work copied from another 68%
Turned in assignment done by parents 20%
Worked on an assignment with other when asked not to 76%
Copied a few sentences without citation 60%
Let another copy homework 86%
Turned in paper obtained in large part from a term-paper mill 16%
or Web site
Copied a few sentences from a Web site without footnoting them 52%
Why are they cheating?

There are a number of possible explanations for the rise in cheating between el-
ementary school and high school. Increasing pressure from parents as students pre-
pare to apply to college is one; the increasing difficulty of the material being taught
is another. I believe that the growing influence of peers—and declining influence of
parents and teachers—is even more important. Unfortunately, it appears that many
parents and teachers are doing little to combat this trend. Forty-seven percent of the
respondents reported that teachers in their school sometimes ignore cheating. The
most frequent explanation for such behavior, mentioned by 26 percent of students,
was that teachers often don't want to accuse a student of cheating because of the
bureaucratic procedures involved in pursuing such allegations.
Other explanations offered by students include the belief that teachers don't
care about cheating (11 percent); the student is an athlete or a student the teacher
likes (8 percent); or the teacher feels sorry for the student and doesn't want to
cause him or her additional trouble (6 percent). Parents may send a similar mes-
sage, not only by putting too much pressure on their children, but also by failing to
Appendix A 239
emphasize the importance of academic honesty. Some parents even look the other
way when they think their child may have cheated, or they blindly defend their
child if a teacher accuses the youngster of academic dishonesty. And of course
the 20 percent of students who say they have turned in assignments on which
their parents did most of the work are receiving a clear message that cheating is
sometimes acceptable.
Enter the Internet

The Internet has raised new and significant problems for both students and
teachers. Younger students, for whom the Internet is such a common form of
communication, seem to have difficulty understanding its proper use as an aca-
demic tool. And many high school students believe—or say they believe—that
if information is on the Internet, it is public knowledge and does not need to be
footnoted—even if it's quoted verbatim. Table 2 shows what my survey of high
school juniors in public and private schools discovered about the impact of such
thinking on students' attitudes and behavior.
Many high school students find Internet plagiarism so easy and consider it so
unlikely to be detected that it is almost too tempting to resist. Although the advent
of services that check for Internet plagiarism may have altered the situation, high
school students who participated in these focus groups said that teachers were not
as Internet-savvy as their students and were unlikely to detect Internet plagiarism.
Students also felt that the quality of material available on the Net was usually
more than adequate for their needs.
The fact that high school students do not take very seriously what we might
call Internet "cut and paste" plagiarism is a cause for concern. High school stu-
dents may be under the impression that lifting information from the Internet, even
verbatim, is good research practice rather than cheating. Are we raising a genera-
Table 2: Plagiarism and the Internet

Students reporting Students say behavior
behavior is serious
Plagiarism from written sources
Copied almost word for word and 34% 70%
submitted as own work
Copied a few sentences without 60% 39%
citation
Internet plagiarism
Turned in paper obtained in large 16% 74%
part from paper mill or Web site
Copied a few sentences from a 52% 46%
Web site without footnoting them
240 Appendix A
tion of students who view scholarship as "borrowing" thoughts from a variety of

different sources and simply assembling them into a final product?
What can we do?

Some people believe that greater vigilance and more severe punishments are
the solutions to student cheating. These tactics are likely to reduce cheating—and
that is certainly a worthwhile goal—but they won't touch the attitudes that lead to
cheating. To do that, schools need to change the culture that accepts cheating as
a matter of course and replace it with one that places a higher value on academic
honesty. The Center for Academic Integrity, a consortium of over 250 colleges
based at Duke University, recommends several steps to help create this culture:
• Develop standards that are communicated to all members of the school

community (including parents).
• Create a process for handling alleged violations.
• Get a commitment, especially from the school administration, to adhere
to and enforce these standards.
But these steps will lead nowhere unless the school also sponsors programs that
promote academic integrity—for instance, schoolwide discussions that grapple with
questions about what encourages cheating and how to promote academic honesty.
Many teachers do not work in schools or school districts willing to devise such
standards and programs or even to support teachers who discipline students for
cheating. And if teachers don't realize the effect of a failure to react to incidents
of cheating, they may be tempted to give the issue a pass. Unfortunately, as noted
earlier, students often take this as a license to cheat. However, there are things
teachers can do on their own to establish an atmosphere that supports academic
honesty. At the very least, they need to lead frank and open discussions that deal
with questions like why students cheat, how it harms them in the long run, aca-
demically and otherwise, and how it harms other students as well.
It is also important for teachers to clarify their expectations for students. For
example, many teachers fail to explain what level of collaboration is permissible
on assignments. When they don't, students must decide for themselves, and, more
often than not, they conclude that whatever has not been specifically prohibited is
acceptable. Any teacher who penalizes a student for collaboration when the teacher
has not clarified his or her expectations is probably on very weak ground.
The most significant contextual factor in a student's decision to cheat or not
to cheat is peer influence. Students look to other students to determine what is
acceptable behavior, and acceptability depends to a large extent on the culture in
their school. If the school has achieved some level of consensus that cheating is
wrong—as can happen, for example, in schools that adopt honor codes—students
may hesitate to cheat for fear that peers will disapprove or even report them to
the teacher.
Appendix A 241
In the absence of such a culture, cheating can even create a feeling of solidarity.
Students may come to view cheating from a "we" vs. "they" perspective. "We"
students need to stick together to overcome the obstacles our teachers and/or the
administration keep placing in our way. In this situation, rules on collaboration,
plagiarism, and other forms of cheating are viewed as just another hassle by stu-
dents, and bending the rules a little to overcome such obstacles is acceptable.
Students find teachers' failings—real or supposed—useful in justifying cheating.
The relevance and fairness of assessments are issues students often raise. The ques-
tion here is not the difficulty of the tests or the course material. Everyone has heard
students talk with pride about courses they have taken where, despite the difficulty
of the course, they simply would not cheat. However, students speak angrily about
teachers who give tests that cover material not discussed in class or highlighted in
homework assignments, and they may find it relatively easy to justify cheating in
such cases. Whatever the truth in individual student complaints, there is no ques-
tion that cheating can be used to express disrespect for a teacher and defiance of the
teacher's authority.
Although promoting academic integrity is superior to policing students, teach-
ers should do what they can to reduce the opportunities for classroom cheating.
At the very least, this sends a message to students that academic honesty is con-
sidered important. Some useful techniques—none of them new and most, un-
fortunately, involving additional work for the teacher—include using multiple
versions of a test, basing tests on essay questions rather than short-answer ques-
tions, and giving different tests for different sections of the same course. Giving
open-book exams, where possible, or allowing students to bring notes with them
to the exam room also discourages cheating, although such tests require a special
kind of preparation if students are to do well on them. Barbara Gross Davis, at the
University of California at Berkeley, offers an excellent compilation of classroom
strategies to reduce cheating (www.uga.berkeley.edu/sled/bgd/prevent.html) and
the Because We Care Education Society of Alberta, Canada, offers some very
useful ideas for combating plagiarism (www.21earn.ca/mapset/safetynet/plagia-
rism/plagiarismframes.html).
Finally, as discussed at length earlier, the increasing use of the Internet by stu-
dents is creating a serious problem. Students talk about the ease with which papers
can be downloaded from the Internet and submitted with little fear of detection.
Even if the Internet does not attract new cheaters, data from my high school study
suggest it will lead to an increased incidence of cheating among existing cheaters
because of its ease of use, convenience, and potential anonymity. Thus, teachers
would be foolish if they did not develop assignments that are less vulnerable to
cheating on the Internet—for example, assigning papers that are as current and
out-of-the-ordinary as possible and requiring students to interpret the information
they gather.
Appropriately, the Internet itself can provide much advice both in how to help
students use the Internet and to detect material plagiarized from the Internet. For
example, a recent search using www.google.com and the keywords "student pla-
242 Appendix A
giarism" + "Internet" yielded over 800 hits. The sites varied in their quality and
usefulness, but many included helpful tips on avoiding and detecting Internet pla-
giarism.
Conclusion
It is far easier to document the prevalence of cheating than to give useful sug-
gestions about how to reduce the incidence of cheating. In the long run, the key
is to convince students that academic integrity is something to be valued. The
first step is to talk with students about why academic integrity is a worthwhile
goal. For example, teachers and parents should emphasize how little students
learn when they cheat—how, in fact, cheating will only lead to serious problems
later on when cheaters lack the foundation to succeed in advanced courses. Given
the messages students get every day from their peers and the larger society, this
discussion is unlikely to meet with immediate success. It will meet with even less
success, however, if teachers are not prepared to address cheating that occurs in
their classrooms and if parents do not support these teachers. Messages on the
value of integrity carry little weight if a teacher looks the other way when cheat-
ing occurs or if parents don't seem to consider it as important as good grades.
Of course, taking a stronger anti-cheating stance will be difficult in schools or
districts where the administration does not support teachers or where community
pressures for student success are extreme.
The good news is that many students who cheat seem genuine in their distaste
for what they are doing. As I discovered in carrying out my survey, many would
be willing, and even prefer, to do their work honestly, but they are not willing to
be placed at a disadvantage by their honesty. Students are looking to their teachers
and schools to take the lead. Teachers and schools, in turn, must convince parents
that teaching our future generation to be honest, to take pride in the work they do
because it is their own, is at least as important as any academic skill youngsters
learn—and certainly far more important than any grade they get.
[Excerpt reprinted with permission of the author and the publisher from the Winter 2001
issue of the American Educator, the quarterly journal of the American Federation of Tea
ers, AFL-CIO. The entire article is online at www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educa-
tor/winter2001/Cheating.html.
American Federation of Teachers, AFIXTO—555 New Jersey Avenue, NW—Washing-

ton, DC 20001. Copyright by the American Federation of Teachers, AFL»CIO. All rights
reserved. Photographs and illustrations, as well as text, cannot be used without permission
from the AFT.
Donald McCabe is professor of Organization Management at Rutgers Business School,

Rutgers University, Newark, NJ, and founding president of the Center for Academic Integ-
rity at Duke University.]
APPENDIX B
Survey Forms
All surveys in Appendix B may be copied for use in classrooms and may be
adapted to meet the individual needs of the teachers using them. It is important
to have written permission from your principal or other appropriate administrator
before conducting a student survey.
Do NOT put your name on this survey

We are writing a book about cheating in schools today. We want your honest
opinion about why you personally decide to cheat or not to cheat. All replies will
be anonymous.
Thank you for your important contribution to our book.
Kathy Foss and Ann Lathrop
YOU are: male female GRADE level: 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Please choose ONE question to write about. Circle the question you
choose:1 23 4
1. If you cheat in all or most all of your classes, why do you cheat?
2. Describe one time when you could have cheated in school but you didn't.
Why did you decide not to cheat?
3. Why would you never cheat, even when other students are cheating?
4. If you cheat in some classes, but there is one class you absolutely would
never cheat in, why don't you cheat in that class?
244 Appendix B
3-Minute Survey
Thanks for answering these quick questions. Make comments if you want to.
Do NOT put your name on this paper

How many of YOUR teachers have discussed cheating on tests and assignments
in one or more of your classes this year?
1 2 3 4 5 6 none
How many of YOUR teachers have discussed plagiarism in one or more of your
classes this year?
1 2 3 4 5 6 none
Have your parents talked with you about why you shouldn't cheat at school?
yes, often yes, a few times not this school year
If you copied a paper or part of a paper from the Internet, did your parents know
about it?
yes no
What would they say about it?

it's OK don't do it
Do you know what your Student Handbook says about cheating and plagiarism?
yes, I've read it no idea, never read it
Do your parents know what the Student Handbook says?

yes no I don't know
THANKS!
PLEASE PUT YOUR SURVEY IN ONE
OF THE LIBRARY SURVEY BOXES
Appendix B 245
Do NOT Put Your Name on This Survey

Thanks for answering these quick questions. Make comments if you want to.
1. Have you observed students cheating on tests or quizzes? yes no

2. Do you think they cheated because the teacher wasn't paying attention?
yes no probably other
Other reasons why students cheat:
• didn't study, didn't know answers, afraid to fail
• wanted a better grade
• like to outsmart teachers
• had nothing to lose
• it's a hard subject
3. Have you ever cheated on a test? yes no

3a. Was it because you didn't study? yes no maybe
3b. Were you under a lot of pressure to get a good grade?
yes no sometimes
3c. Did you do it because everyone does it? yes no sometimes
4. Have you ever taken a paper off the Internet and turned it in as your own
work? yes no parts of a paper
5. Have you every bought a paper off the Internet? yes no
6. Do you think you understand what the term plagiarism means?
yes no not sure
THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME
Author's note: We received a number of indignant responses to question 3c

and probably will drop it from our next survey. Comments ranged from "No, do
you think I'm stupid?" to "Of course not, I have my reasons."
APPENDIX C
Student Cheating and Plagiarism

in the Internet Era: A Wake-Up Call
Ann Lathrop and Kathleen Foss
Libraries Unlimited, 2000
AnnotatedTable ofContents
Chapter 1: Overview
We know students are cheating more often today, their cheating techniques
are increasingly sophisticated, and many express guilt or remorse only if they are
caught. Why do they cheat? The bottom line seems to be (a) it's easy, especially
with new technologies, (b) fewer than 10 percent are caught, and (c) most of
those who are caught get off without serious penalty. The byword appears to have
changed from Don't cheat to Don't get caught.
Chapter 2: High-Tech Cheating

Small hand-held computers, electronic calculators, pagers, Web sites, and
computer networks all can be used legitimately to enhance students' work. They
also give some students an unfair advantage when used for cheating. COPY ME
page: High-Tech Devices Used for Cheating.
Chapter 3: ElectronicPlagiarism
Students copy papers from a variety of Internet sites: online "paper mills,"
reviews of films and plays, electronic journals, and legitimate research sites cre-
ated to share scientific and scholarly papers. Electronic research services prepare
"original" papers for a fee; one even asks for a writing sample from the student
in order to produce the appropriate level and style of writing. The types of papers
available online and the simple steps of downloading a paper are explained. Stu-
248 Appendix C
dents are warned against plagiarizing online graphics or other materials to create
their own Web sites; these are protected by copyright. Chapter topics: What's
Available on the Internet? Plagiarizing 1-2-3; Plagiarizing from Electronic Ency-
clopedias. COPY ME page: Online Sites for Reports and Research Papers. Article
reprint: "Downloadable Term Papers: What's a Prof to Do?" by Tom Rocklin.
Chapter 4: Why We Are Alarmed

Statistical data from regional and national surveys summarized here indicate a
steady increase in cheating behaviors. Student attitudes in a number of interviews
show a general acceptance of cheating as "no big deal" and document an almost
universal reluctance to "rat" on classmates who cheat. During interviews students
brag about their cheating, criticize teachers for not catching them, and scoff at the
likelihood of any serious penalty. Chapter topics: Things Are Bad and Getting
Worse; Are Elementary School Students Cheating? Student and Teacher Attitudes
Toward Cheating; What the Students Say; 3 National Surveys on Cheating; Re-
search Highlights on Cheating in Colleges and Universities. COPY ME pages:
Cheating and Succeeding; Research Highlights. Article reprint: "Schooling With-
out Learning: Thirty Years of Cheating in High School" by Fred Schab.
Chapter 5: High-Tech Defenses Against Cheating and Plagiarism

Possibly the best defense against high-tech cheating is information. Explore
the hardware and software in computer stores and read instructional technology
journals. Attend technology workshops. Explore online paper mills and learn to
download and edit a paper. Ask students to explain how technology tools in their
classrooms can be used for cheating. Students may be less likely to cheat when
they know their teachers and parents are informed. Chapter topics: Information
As a First Line of Defense; High-Tech Defenses Against Cheating Technologies;
Blocking, Filtering and Rating Systems; Using Technology to Identify Plagiarism;
Web Sites with Resources for Countering Plagiarism; Searching the Internet for the
Originals of Plagiarized Papers. Article reprint: "Student Plagiarism in an Online
World" by Julie Ryan.
Chapter 6: Parents: Vigilant, Informed, Involved

Parents have the most important role in limiting cheating and plagiarism. They
set the moral tone in the home and model ethical behavior for their children.
Active involvement in a variety of school activities can open important lines of
communication with their children's teachers. It is especially important that par-
ents deal ethically and fairly with any instances of cheating or plagiarism by their
own children. Chapter topics: Be Informed About Technology in Your Schools
and Involved in School Activities; Be a Model of Ethical Behavior; Be Ethical in
Dealing with Student Cheating or Plagiarism. COPY ME pages: Help, But Not
Too Much; Practical Suggestions to Support Students at Home and School; Will-
Appendix C 249
ful Blindness About Cheating. Article reprint: "Honoring Tomorrow's Leaders

Today" by Paul Krouse.
Chapter 7: Integrity, Ethics, and Character Education

Students should receive the following clear and consistent message from adults
they respect at school and at home: Honesty and integrity are the hallmarks of
good character and are expected from everyone. Dishonesty in any form, includ-
ing cheating and plagiarism, is wrong and will not be tolerated. Educators and
parents who send this message, and who model honesty and integrity in their own
behavior, will make a difference in students' lives. Chapter topics: Character Edu-
cation at Teacher-Training Institutions; The Power of Story; Institutes, Centers
and Resources that Support Ethics, Integrity, and Character Education; Student
Discussions of Integrity and Ethical Character. COPY ME pages: Does Cheat-
ing Harm Your Career? Are These Valid Reasons to Cheat or Plagiarize? Article
reprint: "The Six E's of Character Education" by Kevin Ryan.
Chapter 8: Academic Integrity Policies

We cannot let students make cheating and plagiarizing into a game where who-
ever cheats the most is the winner. One positive approach is the development of an
Academic Integrity Policy. It is important that all administrators, Board members,
faculty, students, and parents—in effect, the entire school community—partici-
pate in the development of the policy. It should define cheating and plagiarism
explicitly, prohibit any use of technology for illicit purposes, and establish appro-
priate procedures and penalties for violations. This policy should be adopted by
the Board of Education, publicized throughout the district, and implemented fairly
and consistently by all teachers and administrators. Chapter topics: Initiating an
Action Plan; Gathering Local Statistical Data; Honor Code or Integrity Policy?
School Board, Administrative, and Faculty Leadership; Student Leadership; Ac-
ceptable Use Policies; Fair Enforcement and an Ethical School Culture; Publiciz-
ing the Academic Integrity Policy; One High School's Academic Honesty Code.
COPY ME pages: How to Develop a Strong Program for Academic Integrity;
Ten Principles of Academic Integrity for Faculty; One Principal's Commitment to
Ethics. Article reprint: "Honor Codes: Teaching Integrity and Interdependence"
by Lewis Cobbs.
Chapter 9: Defining Cheating and Plagiarism for Students

Students must have a clear understanding of cheating or plagiarism: If you had
any help that you don't want your teacher or parents to know about, you prob-
ably cheated. If you didnf think of it and write it all on your own, and you didnf
cite (or write down) the sources where you found the ideas or the words, ifs
probably plagiarism. Chapter topics: Learning to Recognize Cheating and Pla-
giarism; Permissible Collaboration; Ethical Use of Writing Centers and Private
250 Appendix C
Tutors; Copyright Issues; Explaining Collaboration and Plagiarism to Students

from Other Cultures. COPY ME pages: When Is Collaboration OK? Are Any of
These Cheating? Are Any of These Plagiarizing? Article reprint: "But I Changed
Three Words! Plagiarism in the ESL Classroom" by Lenora Thompson and Portia
Williams.
Chapter 10: Dealing with Student Dishonesty

Cheating and plagiarism are unpleasant realities for teachers. The best prepara-
tion for dealing with these problems is to become familiar with the district's or
school's Academic Integrity Policy, or to help establish a policy if there is none.
The Academic Integrity Policy defines illicit actions, outlines procedures for
dealing with violations, and specifies penalties. Make sure students and parents
understand the policy and know that it will be enforced. Chapter topics: "Why
Shouldn't I Cheat? Dealing With Suspected Cheating or Plagiarism; Suggestions
for Informing Parents; Fair and Effective Penalties; Concern for Privacy Rights;
Requiring That an Assignment or Test Be Completed Fairly. COPY ME page: A
Case of High School Plagiarism. Article reprint: "Notes on Cheating for the Busy
Classroom Teacher" by Berk Moss.
Chapter 11: Reducing Cheating on Tests and Assignments

We can reduce cheating when we (1) convince students that all of the teachers
are committed to creating an honest and ethical school environment, (2) develop
an Academic Integrity Policy that is enforced fairly and consistently, and (3) in-
volve parents in our efforts. Testing procedures are less susceptible to cheating
when tests are designed to focus on interpretation and critical thinking, security
precautions are in place, and students are closely monitored. Without these ef-
forts the students' grades may be so contaminated by cheating that they no longer
represent a fair evaluation of work accomplished. Chapter topics: "Smart People"
Tests; Teachers Who Care About Cheating; Reducing Cheating on Tests, Assign-
ments, Homework, Lab Reports, etc.
Chapter 12: The Librarian-Teacher Team

The librarian plays an important role in the research process, collaborating with
the teacher in designing and implementing projects to build information literacy.
Librarians offer faculty workshops, student orientation sessions, and individual
assistance to teachers and students in locating and evaluating appropriate research
materials online and in print. Chapter topics: The Librarian as Team Teacher;
Real-life Importance of Research; Librarians Are Sources of Information about
the Internet; Teachers and Librarians Collaborate on Research Assignments; Li-
Appendix C 251
brarians Make Research Materials Accessible. COPY ME page: Cyber-Plagiarism

Faculty Workshop.
Chapter 13: Identifying and Reducing Plagiarism

Experienced teachers may suspect a paper has been plagiarized when it is writ-
ten well above a student's usual ability level, doesn't quite fit the assignment, has
footnotes that are not found in the bibliography, cites a number of college-level
references, has no current references, and so on. The sudden appearance of a com-
pleted paper may be questioned in cases where the teacher has not observed any
work being accomplished in class or in the library. Parents can suspect plagiarism
when they have not observed any of the research or writing being done at home or
have been put off with excuses when they ask to see a draft of the paper. Uninten-
tional plagiarism may occur when students do not understand the concept clearly
or have not learned the necessary research and writing skills. Chapter topics:
"High-Tech" and "Low-Tech" Plagiarism; Unintentional Plagiarism; Indicators
of Possible Plagiarism. COPY ME pages: An Electronic Scavenger Hunt; Plagia-
rism and the Web. Article reprint: "Dear Teacher, Johnny Copied" by Jackson,
Tway, and Frager.
Chapter 14: Structuring Writing Assignments to Reduce Plagiarism

A student's grade for a research assignment should be based on an evaluation
of all steps in the research process rather than only on the content and organiza-
tion of the written report, or product. This can reduce plagiarism by requiring
outlines, drafts, working bibliographies, or other specific materials not readily
available from online sources. A student research portfolio can help to organize
and document the research process. Chapter topics: Evaluating Both the Research
Process and the Product; Student Writing Handbook; Structuring an Effective
Writing Assignment. COPY ME page: Research Portfolio Cover Sheet. Article
reprint: "Teaching Practices that Encourage or Eliminate Student Plagiarism" by
Susan Davis.
Chapter 15: Tools for Writing without Plagiarizing

Students who have learned the skills of paraphrasing, summarizing, and quot-
ing selectively, with correct citations, will have a better understanding of pla-
giarism and how to avoid it. The lesson ideas in this chapter are excerpts from
journal articles or reports that suggest ways to teach the skills students need to
avoid plagiarism. Complete citations to the original articles are provided for read-
ers who want to explore a lesson in more detail. Article reprint: "Anti-Plagiarism
Strategies for Research Papers" by Robert Harris.
252 Appendix C
Chapter 16: Alternatives to Traditional Writing Assignments

It is more difficult for students to locate a paper online or from other sources
when an assignment is unusual, requires a particular focus or point of view, lists
quotations from one or more specific reference sources that must be included,
or is individualized in some other way. Suggested ideas include writing a paper
that includes a survey, interview, or other primary research data collected by the
student; comparing and contrasting two points of view on a controversial topic;
or writing a letter describing a dinner with an historical person, author, or other
famous person from the era being studied. Article reprint: "A Way to Break Down
Writing Research Papers into Steps That Emphasize the Discovery Aspect of Re-
search" by Helena Worthen.
Chapter 17: Online Sites for Reports and Research Papers

Fifty online sites have been identified as representative of those available to
students who want to avoid writing their own report. Many have a disclaimer
that their papers are to be used for research only and must not be turned in as the
student's own work.
Student Cheating and Plagiarism in the Internet Era: A Wake-Up Call,

by Ann Lathrop and Kathleen Foss, Libraries Unlimited, 2000.
Author-Title Index
Academic Integrity: A Letter to My Stu- Cheating—A National Issue Hits Home,

dents, 40-41 80-85
Academic Integrity Policies!Honor Codes Cheating: An Insider's Guide to Cheating
Online, 116-17 at Lakeview High School, 137-39
An Administrative Check List, 110-11 Cheating Isn't the Problem, 10
Arizona Interscholastic Association, 147, Cheating: Why Students Do It and How
155 We Can Help Them Stop, 237-42
Assigning a Multigenre Research Project, Cite It? Don't Have to Cite It?, 208
203-5 Copyright and Plagiarism Guidelines for
Students, 191
Babione, Alexandra, 175-76 Cut-and-Paste Research, 210
Biggs, Martha, 198-99
Books and ERIC Documents: Ethical Is- "Democracy in Action " in the Washing-
sues, Student Cheating, 11 ton County Public Schools, 86-89
Borson, Joseph, 10-1A The Digital Child, 7-9
Brady, John J., 80-85 Discussion Questions: Student Whistle-
Brown, Scott, 158-59 blowers, 105
Distance Education Courses for Public
Callahan, David, xv-xvii, 49 Elementary and Secondary School
Carrying Secrets, 106-8 Students: 2002-03,211
CATS WIN at Sabino High School, "The Dog Ate It" —Conquering Home-
156-57 work Hassles, 62-63
Changing School Culture at Springfield Downey, Diane, 114-15
Township High School: A Research
Integrity Policy that Works, Farley, Karen, 42^13
122-30 Finkelstein, Shulamit, 86-89
CHARACTER COUNTS!, 95-96 Focus on Academic Honesty and Integ-
CHARACTER COUNTS! at Lennox rity, 45
Middle School, 90-94 Fourth Grade Researchers, 198-99
254 Author-Title Index
Galles, Gary M., 167-68 Keeping Technology Honest, 225-32

Gordon, Jennifer, 70-74 Keep the Academic Integrity Policy
Guy, Laurie, 206-7 "Front and Center," 112-13
Kreamer, Will, 156-57
Harris, Robert, 110-11, 177-79
Hayes, Bill, 75-79 The Lakeview High School Library Web
Helping Our Children Learn to Make Site, 140
Good Choices, 57-59 Lay ton, Thomas G., 7-9
Help Students to Value Homework and Library Research Checklist, 182
Complete It Honestly, 48 Lincoln, Margaret, 137—10
Henry, Jacquie, 225-32
Hernandez, Elizabeth, 94 Marple Newtown's Student Committee for
High School Students' Responses to a Academic Integrity, 70-74
"3-Minute Survey," 44 McCabe, Donald, 237-42
Howard, Rebecca, 174 McEwan, Elaine K., 53-54, 62-63
How Cheating Helps Drive Better In-
struction, 169-71 Nobody Likes a Cheat, 55-56
How to Protect Yourselffrom an Accusa-
tion of Plagiarism, 180 Online Learning—Technical Information,
How to Take Copying Out of Report Writ- 224
ing, 200-2 Online Sites for Reports and Research
Papers, 188-90
Identifying a Plagiarized Paper—Not as Ortiz, Carrie-Ann, 90-94
Simple as It Sounds, 187
Identifying a Unifying Theme as a Final Pearson, Gretchen, 141-45
Exam in Literature, 206-7 Perkins, Christine, 206-7
"/ Didn't Do It"—Dealing With Dishon- Peter, Father Val J., 55-56
esty, 53-54 Plagiarism: How to Avoid It,
The Importance of a Copyright Policy, 175-76
192 Plagiarism, Trust, and Fraud,
Integrity in Online Education, 172-73
218-223 Plagiarism Web Sites for Educators, 186
International Society for Technology in Plagiarism: What Should a Teacher Do?,
Education, 194 174
ISTE National Educational Technology Practice for Notecards, Paraphrasing,
Standards (NETS) Project, 194 Quoting and Summarizing, 209
Preventing Plagiarism, 60-61
Jabs, Carolyn, 60-61 A Proactive Response to Plagiarism,
Jansen, Barbara, 79, 135-36 137-39
Jensen, Marcia, 197 Pursuing Victory With Honor-
Johnson, Brian, 90-94 Arizona Interscholastic Association,
Johnson, Roberta Ann, 103-4 155
Josephson, Michael, 10, 57-59, 95-97, Pursuing Victory With Honor at Sherman
149-50, 160 Oaks Center for Enriched Studies,
Josephson Institute of Ethics, 236 151-53
Justice or Just Us? What to Do About Pursuing Victory With Honor in Arizona
Cheating, 32-34 Schools, 154
Author-Title Index 255
Report Card 2004: The Ethics of Ameri- Student Voices, 16-17

can Youth, 236 Suid, Murray, 200-202
Research in the Primary Grades: Spiders, Support for Student Research and Writing
197 at the St. Andrew's School Library
A "Research Night Out" for Parents, Web Site, 135-36
184
Research Portfolio Cover Sheet, 181 Take the "Clean Hands" Test, 131-32
Rocklin, Tom, 172-73 Taylor, Bill, 40-41
Rohrbach, Carol H., 122-32 Teaching About Plagiarism: Resources,
211-12
Schaal, Sandra, 70-74 24/7 Online Library Services, 183
Schmidt, Chuck, 154
School Library Web Sites that Support Uribe, Samuel, Jr., 93
Integrity in Student Writing, 185
Schottler, Beverly, 198-99 Valenza, Joyce Kasman, 122-30, 133-34
Simple Strategies for Combating Plagia- Van Belle, Greg, 169-71
rism, 167-68 Varvel, Virgil, 218-24
Simple Suggestions to Help Reduce Victory With Honor, 149-50
Cheating, 46 The Virtual Library at Springfield Town-
Simpson, Carol, 191-92 ship High School, 133-34
The Six Pillars of Character, 97
Skills for Life in the Davenport Commu- Weinberg, Robert, 151-53
nity Schools, 42-A?> What Could Make You Decide To Be a
Snitching, 109 Whistleblower?, 103-4
Sources for Information on Copyright What I Want My Daughter to Get Out of
Policy, 193 Sports, 160
Stephens, Jason M., 32-34 What's a Teacher or Librarian to Do?,
Student Cheating and Plagiarism in 141-45
the Internet Era: A Wake-Up Call, When There's a Question of Plagiarism
247-52 ..., Ill-19
Student Comments/Discussion, Where Attention Goes—Energy Flows,
18-31 158-59
The Student Honor Council at St. An- Whose Work is Being Graded?, 47
drew 's Upper School, 75-79 Williamson, Brian, 88
Students Respond to New Honor Code,
114-15 Zingher, Gary, 106-9
Subject Index
Academic integrity committees, 36-37, Board of Education members

70-73, 75-78, 80-82, 84-88, 91, leadership role, 4, 36-38, 100, 105,
125, 129, 137-38 110-11
Academic integrity policies/honor codes,
4, 16, 23, 60, 67-94, 99-102, 105 Calculators, 226-27, 229-30
development, 36-38, 70-72, 75-77, Camera phones. See Cell phones; Digital
80-81, 86, 90-91, 107-8, 110-11 cameras
examples, 40-41, 45, 72-74, 76-78, Cameras. See Digital cameras
82-85, 87-88, 92-93, 114, 116-17 Cassette tape players, 227
implementation and publicity, 36, CD players, 227
70-74, 76-78, 81-82, 87, 91-92, Cell phones, 225-27, 230
110-15,119 Center for Academic Integrity, 240
parent and community support, 73, CHARACTER COUNTS!, 58, 90-97,
76-77, 86-87, 91-94, 101-2, 111, 147^8, 151, 156-57
114,242 Chat rooms, 227-29
student participation, 67-68, 70-82, Cheating
88-89, 114-15 career/life implications, 16, 18-21,41,
See also Research integrity policies; 78-79, 242
Whistleblowing or "ratting" collaboration, unpermitted, 33, 48, 238,
Administrators 240
leadership role, 4, 36-38,42-43, 67-94, definition, 32-33, 37, 55, 72-73, 83, 137
105,110-11,127, 151-54, 156-59 indicators of possible cheating, 226-30
Athletes penalties, 16, 19, 73-74, 77-78, 110-
integrity, 147-60 11,138
See also Pursuing Victory With Honor, prevention strategies, 10-11, 33-34,
Survey data: athletes 37-38, 40-41, 44-48, 137-39, 225-
31,240^2
Bibliographies. See Research papers: reasons/excuses, 16-17, 24-26, 32-33,
bibliographies 46, 53-54, 2 3 8 ^ 1
Blogs, 228-29
258 Subject Index
responding to incidents, 53-54, 56, Electronic calculators. See Calculators

110-11 Elementary school students. See Lessons
See also Academic integrity policies/ and lesson plans
honor codes; Homework and school E-mail, 227-28
projects; Language translators; Online Encyclopedias, 200-202
education; Plagiarism; Survey data Ethics/Ethical school culture, 3-4, 10-11,
Cheating pamphlet. See Cheating: An 32-38, 40-43, 49-50, 57-59, 67-68,
Insider's Guide to Cheating at 75-79, 87-88, 95-97, 107-9, 119,
Lakeview High School 123-24, 141^2, 194, 240-42
Cheat sites. See Paper mills Excuses for cheating. See Cheating:
Citing online sources. See Research pa- reasons/excuses; Plagiarism: reasons/
pers: bibliographies excuses; Students: attitudes
Coaches. See Athletes: integrity; Pursuing Eye monitor glasses, 227, 230
Victory With Honor
Collaboration. See Cheating: collabora- Faculty. See Teachers
tion, unpermitted; Homework and Faxes, 227-28
school projects; Librarians/library Flash drives, 227, 230
media teachers: collaboration with
teachers; Plagiarism: collaboration, Graphic calculators. See Calculators
unpermitted; Teachers: collabora-
tion with librarians/library media Handheld computers, 226
teachers Headsets. See Earphones
Community support. See Academic integ- High school students. See Lessons and
rity policies/honor codes: parent and lesson plans; Students; Survey data
community support Homework and school projects, 17, 30-31,
Computer networks, 226-30. See also 4 5 ^ 8 , 50-52, 62-63, 228, 238. See
Online education also Cheating: collaboration, unper-
Computers. See Handheld computers mitted; Language translators; Parents:
COPY ME pages. See COPY ME page assisting with homework and school
titles in Author-Title Index projects; Plagiarism: collaboration,
Copyright issues, 133, 135, 140, 172, unpermitted; Research papers
191-93,208-9,239 Honor codes. See Academic integrity
Course management systems. See On- committees; Academic integrity poli-
line education: course management cies/honor codes; Research integrity
systems policies
Honor councils. See Academic integrity
Davenport Community Schools, Daven- committees; Academic integrity poli-
port, Iowa, 4 2 ^ 3 cies/honor codes
Digital cameras, 226-27, 229-30
Digital pen scanners, 227, 229-30 Informers. See Whistleblowing or "ratting"
Digital watches, 226, 229-30 Infrared transmitters, 226
Distance learning. See Online education Inservice. See Librarians/library media
Documenting sources. See Research teachers: collaboration with teachers;
papers: bibliographies Teachers: collaboration with librar-
ians/library media teachers
Earphones, 227, 230 Instant messaging (IM), 227-28
El Dorado High School, Placentia, Cali- International High School, Eugene, Or-
fornia, 206-7 egon, 114-15
Subject Index 259
Internet. See Cheating; Paper mills; Pla- Online sites for reports and research
giarism; Research papers papers. See Paper mills
Josephson Institute of Ethics, 236 Pagers, 227, 230

Paper mills
Lakeview High School, Battle Creek, downloading and creating a paper,
Michigan, 137-40. See also Cheat- 50-51, 123, 163, 187, 238-39, 241
ing: An Insider's Guide to Cheating examples, 188-90
at Lakeview High School use in instruction, 144, 171, 210
Language translators, 226, 229 See also Plagiarism; Research papers
Lennox Middle School, Lennox, Califor- Parents
nia, 90-94 assisting with homework and school
Lessons and lesson plans, 195-210 projects, 50-52, 60-63, 184, 239
Librarians/library media teachers, 119-45 attitudes and expectations, 4, 15-17, 22,
collaboration with teachers, 119-20, 26,41,44,49-50,55,160
123-27, 131-32, 138, 142-43, 145, responses to cheating or plagiarism
187 incidents, 4, 49, 53-54, 56, 238-39
leadership role, 77, 106-9, 119-20, setting an ethical example, 10, 49, 55,
122-39, 141-45,185,225-32 107
See also Lessons and lesson plans working with school staff, 45, 51-52,
Locating original of a plagiarized paper. 77, 87-88, 94, 100, 110-11, 127, 184
See Plagiarism: locating original of a See also Homework and school proj-
plagiarized paper ects; Survey data: parents
Plagiarism, 122-45, 163-87, 239^1
Marple Newtown High School, Newtown collaboration, unpermitted, 33, 48, 228
Square, Pennsylvania, 70-74 definition, 72-73, 83, 129, 138, 172,
Media specialists. See Librarians/Library 175,195,208
media teachers detection services, 186-87
Memory sticks. See Portable data storage indicators of possible plagiarism, 177-
devices 79
Middle school students. See Lessons and locating original of a plagiarized paper,
lesson plans; Survey data; Students 169, 187
MP3 players, 227 penalties, 73-74, 77-78, 110-11, 124-
Multigenre research papers, 203-5 25,129-30, 138, 144, 178-79
prevention strategies, 37-38, 40-41,
National Center for Education Statistics, 44-45, 50-51, 60-61, 122^5, 163-
217-18 76, 182-84, 186-87, 211-12, 227-28
Networks. See Computer networks protecting yourself against a charge of
North Canyon High School, Phoenix, plagiarism, 175-180
Arizona, 158-59 reasons/excuses, 141, 239-40
responding to incidents, 110-11, 174,
Online education, 215-24 177-79
cheating, prevention strategies, 218-24 unintentional, 110, 123-24, 141, 143-
course management systems, 219, 221, 44,174, 220-21
223-24 See also Academic integrity policies/
plagiarism, prevention strategies, 220- honor codes; Copyright issues; Lan-
21 guage translators; Lessons and lesson
See also Survey data: online education
260 Subject Index
plans; Paper mills; Research integrity Searching for original of a plagiarized

policies; Research papers; Research paper. See Plagiarism: locating origi-
Portfolio Cover Sheet; Survey data nal of a plagiarized paper
Portable data storage devices, 227, 230 Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Stud-
Portable wireless devices (PWDs), 226 ies, Tarzana, California, 151-53
Principals. See Administrators: leadership Short messaging service (SMS), 226
role Snitching. See Whistleblowing or "ratting"
Programmable calculators. See Calcula- Sports and sportsmanship. See Athletes:
tors integrity; Pursuing Victory With
Publicity. See Academic integrity poli- Honor, Survey data: athletes
cies/honor codes: implementation Springfield Township High School, Er-
and publicity demheim, Pennsylvania, 119, 122-34
Pursuing Victory With Honor, 147, 149-59 St. Andrew's Episcopal School, Austin,
Texas, 75-79, 135-36
Ratting. See Whistleblowing or "ratting" Staples High School, Westport, Connecti-
Reasons for cheating. See Cheating: cut, 80-85
reasons/excuses; Plagiarism: reasons/ Statistical data. See Survey data
excuses; Students: attitudes Students
Reports. See Research papers attitudes, 3, 7-9,13-35, 38,46, 67,
Research integrity policies, 60, 119, 78-79, 91-93, 99, 114-15, 122,
122-30, 133, 142-3. See also Plagia- 127,147,158-59,163,182,225,
rism: prevention strategies; Research 240^2
papers leadership role, 19-21, 37-38, 57-59,
Research papers, 125-26, 131-32, 135, 67-68, 70-82, 88
140-45, 164-73, 181-82, 184, 187, See also Survey data
203-5, 228 Superintendents. See Administrators:
bibliographies, 60, 125-26, 133-35, leadership role
140, 167, 181-82, 198-99, 208-10 Survey data, 13-33, 44, 236-39
grading process and product, 38, 47, athletes, 147-48, 236
134, 164-65, 172-73, 181-82, 187 cheating, 16-34, 44, 236, 238
See also Copyright issues; Lessons and online education, 217-18, 220
lesson plans; Multigenre research parents, 15-16, 22, 44, 49, 236
papers; Paper mills; Plagiarism; plagiarism, 44, 236, 239-42
Research integrity policies; Research students, 13-34, 44, 236, 238-39
Portfolio Cover Sheet teachers, 44, 238
Research process. See Research papers: See also Survey forms
grading process and product Survey forms, 14, 44, 243-45
Sabino High School, Tucson, Arizona, Tattletales. See Whistleblowing or "rat-

156-57 ting"
Scanners, 227-28 Teachers
School Board members. See Board of collaboration with librarians/library
Education members: leadership role media teachers, 123-27, 131-32,
Science fair projects. See Cheating: col- 138, 142-43, 145
laboration, unpermitted; Homework ignoring cheating and plagiarism, 3-4,
and school projects; Parents: as- 10, 14, 17, 27-28
sisting with homework and school leadership role, 4 2 ^ 3 , 70-74, 90-92,
projects 114-15, 122-32
Subject Index 261
preventing cheating and plagiarism, 17, Virtual libraries, 119, 133-36, 140, 183,
28-30, 33-34, 44, 90-94, 122-32, 185
171, 174,177-79,240^2 Washington County Public Schools,
technological literacy, 225-32, 239 Maryland, 86-89
See also Cheating: prevention strate- Watches. See Digital watches
gies; Lessons and lesson plans; Web logs. See Blogs
Parents: working with school staff; Whistleblowing or "ratting," 71, 76,
Plagiarism: prevention strategies 99-109
Term papers. See Research papers Wireless networks. See Computer net-
Tests and testing, 27-28, 40, 4 5 ^ 7 , works
229-31, 238, 241. See also Cheat- Workshops. See Librarians/library media
ing: prevention strategies; Computer teachers: collaboration with teachers;
networks; Online education Teachers: collaboration with librar-
Text messaging, 227 ians/library media teachers
Translation software. See Language trans- Writing assignments. See Lessons and
lators lesson plans; Multigenre research
24/7 Online library services, 183 papers; Research papers
Writing portfolios. See Research Portfolio
Unintentional plagiarism. See Plagiarism: Cover Sheet
unintentional
Victory With Honor. See Athletes: integ-

rity; Pursuing Victory With Honor
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
ANN LATHROP is a retired professor of school librarianship at California State

University, Long Beach, where she was coordinator of the school library credential
program. She has been a library consultant, high school librarian, and elementary
school teacher. She was the founder, and director for seventeen years, of the Cali-
fornia Software Clearinghouse, a national instructional software evaluation proj-
ect funded by the California Department of Education. She is co-author of Student
Cheating and Plagiarism in the Internet Era: A Wake-up Call (Libraries Unlimited,
2000). Her other publications include Courseware in the Classroom, CD-ROM Da-
tabases in School Libraries, and numerous articles on the evaluation of instructional
technology. Her Master of Library Service is from Rutgers University and her doc-
torate in instructional technology is from the University of Oregon.
Since her retirement, Ann has become interested in the study of student cheating
and plagiarism. Her first book on the topic, Student Cheating and Plagiarism in the
Internet Era: A Wake-up Call, is an in-depth exploration of why and how students
cheat and plagiarize, and suggests many practical steps toward prevention. This
new book explores in detail a number of strategies being implemented to reduce
both cheating and plagiarism. Reader's comments are encouraged and appreciated,
especially the sharing of success stories. Contact Ann at alathrop@csulb.edu.
KATHLEEN FOSS is library media specialist at Los Alamitos (CA) High School
and also has worked in public libraries. She became interested in student plagia-
rism when an English teacher asked for help in proving a student had copied his
paper from the Internet. She and Ann began work on an article that gradually
grew into their first book, Student Cheating and Plagiarism in the Internet Era:
A Wake-up Call.
264 About the Authors
Kathleen's on-going research on the topic led to their development of this new
book. It is a positive, encouraging description of effective programs where stu-
dents, teachers, librarians, coaches, administrators, and parents are working to-
gether to counter the problems of cheating and plagiarism in our schools. Kathy
presents conference sessions and workshops for teachers and administrators on
plagiarism and the Internet, and on introducing high school students to electronic
research. Her Master of Library Science is from the University of Southern Cal-
ifornia and her B.A. and teaching credential from California State University,
Long Beach. Contact Kathleen at k_foss@losal.org.

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Guiding Students from

Cheating and Plagiarism to

Ann Lathrop and Kathleen Foss

Westport, Connecticut • London

The paper used in this book complies with the

This book is dedicated to honest students.

This new book is dedicated also to the growing numbers of

Preface by David Callahan xv

Part I: Focus on Honesty and Integrity

Chapter 1 Creating a School Culture of Honesty

Elaine K. McEwan: " 'The Dog Ate It' —

Part II: Leadership in Action

Chapter 5 Effective Leaders Create Effective Policies 67

Robert Weinberg: "Pursuing Victory With Honor at

Part III: Integrity in the Writing Process

Chapter 9 Moving from Plagiarism to Integrity in

Part IV: Using Technology with Integrity

Chapter 11 Honesty in Online Education 215

Chapter 12 Keeping Technology Honest 225

Appendix A National Surveys on Student

Author-Title Index 253

Subject Index 257

Chapter 1 Michael Josephson: "Cheating Isn't the Problem" 10

Chapter 5 Michael Josephson: "CHARACTER COUNTS!" and

A "Research Night Out" for Parents 184

COPY ME pages to help you move students toward honesty and

What you won't find

view of cheating in our schools with an emphasis on ways to reduce

Ann Lathrop Kathleen Foss

Creating a School Culture

Student acceptance of cheating is a fact of life in a school where "everybody

• Schools are taking the problem more seriously.

The hidden barrier to honesty and integrity

How this book is organized

Part II: Leadership in Action

Part HI: Integrity in the Writing Process

Part IV: Using Technology with Integrity

Time and location

Cheating Isn't the Problem

1. Why I don't cheat

We use [Teacher] to replace any teacher's name in a response. Some spell-

Student Voices: Why I Don't Cheat

This tabulation summarizes the relative frequency of student responses.

Student Voices: Why I Cheat

Student Voices: Why I Cheat In Some Classes But Not In Others

Student Comments / Discussion: Why I Don't Cheat

A. Pride in work / desire to learn: 194 total comments

• If I were to never cheat in a class it would be math. I think that math is

B. Consequences and penalties: 165 total comments

C. Moral beliefs and values: 164 total comments

Cheating is bad /I'd feel guilty / conscience bothers me (106)

Religious beliefs / moral values / want to respect myself (28)

D. Peers: 46 total comments

I want my friends to respect me (3)

E. Parents: 13 total comments

F. Academic Integrity Policy / Honor Code at school: 8 total comments

Student Comments / Discussion: Why I Cheat

G. Cheating is easier than studying: 65 total comments

Cheating is fun / it's easy / it's a challenge (10)

H. Grades: 57 total comments

I. Peers: 11 total comments

Friends help me to cheat / expect me to help them cheat (11)

J. Parents: 10 total comments